Do citizens’ perspectives matter? A comparison of formal planning and local preferences for the deployment of renewable energies

The aim of the study is to analyse the extent to which the spatial planning guidelines for renewable energies address the local people’s perception of a sustainable energy transition. Using the example of the municipality of Tettnang in southern Germany, the study focuses on GIS-based visualisations to investigate the spatial intensity to which the overarching formal specifications on land use have been imprinted on the local contexts and what options for alternative spatial concepts are left for the local population to promote the expansion of wind turbines and photovoltaics. In a further step, the methods of participatory mapping and supplementary interviews are used to analyse which spatial perceptions of a spatially balanced energy transition prevail at the local level. The study sample indicates that the specifications of higher-level spatial planning for renewable energies are not so far away from the spatial ideas of the local population as theoretical concepts assume. Rather, a high degree of criterial congruence was found between the interviewees informal and the overarching formal spatial concepts.