EmPowerPlan - Participation and justice on the ground and looking at the big picture

The "EmPowerPlan" project is testing the use and adaptation of simulative tools and collaborative processes. Regional planning actors are to be supported - as participatively as possible - in order to address the challenges of releasing land for renewable energies at an early stage and in dialogue. In this way, it should be possible for decision-makers in public administrations to approve the production of renewable energies more quickly. This accelerates the development of energy infrastructure at regional level.  

This is made possible in particular by the use of the "Simulation Tool for Stakeholder Empowerment" (StEmp-Tool), which was developed by the Reiner Lemoine Institute (RLI). Using the electricity market models created by the Öko-Institut (ÖI), local expansion paths are to weigh the regional contribution of renewable energies against the overarching expansion goals of the energy transition at the state and federal level. Because trust, justice and fairness are important success factors in the expansion of renewable energies, in addition to local energy management issues, the use of the tool in the planning process is being tested in a participatory manner and accompanied by social science from the IZT and the Öko-Institut and examined with regard to its effects. Other planning regions should be able to benefit from the results.