Conference Agenda

In this lecture, I demonstrate a case study to show how the issue of energy transition is structured in a metropolitan locality and how it conflicts with heritage conservation concerns. The case study is set in a pre-1945 housing estate of single and two-storey twin and condominium houses in a major Hungarian city, which estate has architectural value. The research is based on semi-structured interviews with 12 local civil society activists and an additional 4 experts, involved in heritage conservation and energy transition issues.
Results of the research show that heritage conservation is associated with concepts of aesthetics, respect for the spirit of place, immobility and nuisance, while energy transition is associated with concepts of practicality, financial return, self-care, and the possibility of solving natural and social challenges. In many cases, the two sets of concepts are linked: in that both are technology-oriented, linked to local traditions, there is a certain pessimism that runs through them, and this stems from another common point: the effort of civil work for a struggling, labelled right cause, while local and national authorities cause in many cases barriers to resolving the conflict.
In the lecture, I argue that local societies, and in particular the population of the metropolitan area under study, have recognised the potential of green transtition, and the civil society movements under study have an immense contribution to make in informing local societies. Although no major breakthroughs have been made so far in terms of national regulation, the hope that a critical mass of local people and civil society movements will force change is still alive. In fact, the creation of energy communities is the intermediate state that would bring not a compromise but a lasting consensus in this situation - solving both the issue of a climate-conscious and energy-resilient local society, while avoiding ad hoc autonomous and individual solutions.

The term "energy transition" is often oversimplified in public discourse, reduced to a focus on emissions-free energy targets while black-boxing the intricate global supply chains and material flows that sustain them (Nadaï and Wallenborn, 2019). Rather than a uniform shift, energy transitions involve reconfigurations of socio-technical systems that reshape landscapes, infrastructures, and daily practices across geographies (Rotmans et al., 2001; Gailing and Moss, 2016; Buell, 2017). This abstraction risks misrepresenting the uneven spatial manifestations of transitions, where some regions advance while others remain burdened by legacy systems (Fuenfschilling and Binz, 2018).

Understanding the complexity of energy transitions requires analytical tools that reveal how global supply chains unfold in local contexts, materialising as production facilities, infrastructure, and worker settlements, all embedded in specific environmental conditions. Current approaches lack the tools to trace and represent material flows across scales while simultaneously capturing their spatial configurations and territorial transformations. To address this gap, this study proposes a cross-scale mapping methodology that traces how solar energy generation shapes production networks, infrastructure, and settlement patterns across interconnected sites. This approach situates energy transitions within multi-scalar networks, linking chemical processes to physical landscapes and technological artefacts to urban agglomerations.

The methodology integrates GIS-based territorial analysis with drawings, process diagrams, and ethnographic methods to visualise the spatiality of these material assemblages. By mapping material flows across interconnected sites, the study reveals how renewable energy technologies shape heterogeneous spatial arrangements within global production networks (Castán Broto, 2019). These arrangements reveal how energy transitions co-produce both immediate spatial consequences and broader territorial transformations, reflecting historical path dependencies and inequalities often overlooked in sustainability frameworks.

The analysis begins in the Lusatian mining district, Germany, tracing its evolution from agrarian roots to a coal-powered industrial hub and its reinvention as a renewable “Energiedistrikt.” It then examines Weesow-Willmersdorf, Germany’s largest solar park, exploring the spatial and infrastructural challenges of scaling solar energy to meet ambitious regional targets. Finally, the study extends to Suqian, China – a key supplier for Weesow-Willmersdorf and a global hub for solar panel manufacturing – to examine the spatial impacts of rising downstream energy demands, including urban expansion, resource monopolisation, and the hidden transformation consequences of intensified production.

The transition to renewable energy is central to strategies for achieving resilience, sustainability, and digital transformation, particularly within the framework of the EU Green Deal and its evolving policy priorities. This research focuses on mapping and understanding the dynamics of solar energy development, with an emphasis on ground-mounted photovoltaic (PV) systems in Italy, and the Tuscany region in particular.

Using a machine learning approach, this study analyzes the expansion of large-scale PV systems (≥1 MW) and their impact on agricultural land. In 2023 alone, approximately 400 hectares of agricultural land (9.5% of total land lost) were converted to PV installations. By integrating geographic, environmental, economic, and regulatory factors, identified through an extensive literature review, a random forest model was developed to identify areas with high potential for future PV installations. The resulting GIS maps provide actionable insights into optimal locations for solar energy projects, balancing energy goals with land-use preservation.

This study highlights the transformative potential of digital tools in energy planning, showcasing how machine learning and geospatial analysis can support sustainable governance. The findings emphasize the importance of place-based approaches to managing conflicts between renewable energy expansion and agricultural preservation, offering a pathway for regions to navigate socio-economic and environmental challenges in their energy transition strategies.

This contribution is proposed at a decisive moment in the development of Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) in order to examine the role of different configuration and observe how they can be actively modelled, perceived and conceptualized through the processes which take place within and around them. The aim is to bring to light what these communities are doing differently and the peculiar character of social innovation that has paved the way towards a new paradigm of commitment and involvement of people, SMEs and associations in decentralized energy systems. In order to do this, a mixed method qualitative research programme conducted in Italy was implemented. Some CERs have reinvented ways of being together, in achieving the energy transition goals in the European Union’s Clean Energy Package adopted in 2019, encouraging participation and action towards possible alternatives. Thanks to the field research conducted in Italy, the contribution adds to the amplification of knowledge of some ways to promote fast transition to a decarbonized and resilient energy system. It also offers a glimpse of some attempts to promote sustainability in the societal agenda and the relative experiences of members who inhabit these RECs. Therefore, it contributes to the literature on the geographies of the transition and, at the same time, it offers critical issues from an Italian perspective, providing ideas and insights to energy policy makers and those who handle building the decarbonization policies of tomorrow