Fabio Tejedor (p)

Gudrun Haindlmaier

Energy poverty has become an increasingly critical issue in the European Union, exacerbated by rising energy prices, geopolitical instability, and the transition to low-carbon energy sources. While policy responses have largely focused on financial assistance and energy efficiency measures, spatial disparities in energy poverty remain underexplored. This study investigates the spatial dimension of energy poverty in the Netherlands, analyzing its socio-economic and environmental determinants at the district level. Using a multidimensional framework, we integrate exploratory spatial analysis with spatial econometric modeling to assess vulnerability factors and spatial spillover effects. Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) is applied to examine local and global patterns, while the Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) is used to quantify spatial dependencies. Our findings highlight significant spatial inequalities in energy poverty, shaped by socio-economic vulnerabilities, housing conditions, and environmental factors. The results underscore the need for region-specific policy interventions that go beyond a one-size-fits-all approach to energy poverty mitigation. By incorporating spatial analysis into policy design, this research contributes to a more just and effective energy transition in the Netherlands.

Gudrun Haindlmaier (p), Marcus Jandt

Marta Somoza Medina

The transition to climate-neutral cities depends on inclusive urban strategies that promote sustainability, resilience, and social equity. Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) are a key mechanism in this transformation, fostering collaboration among diverse local stakeholders to create liveable and energy-positive urban neighborhoods. A crucial aspect of this process is "energy citizenship," which highlights the active participation of individuals, communities, and organizations in shaping energy transitions. To ensure effective stakeholder engagement, it is essential to understand the diverse roles, needs, and capacities of local actors and facilitate their collaboration in energy-related activities.
This paper explores different approaches to stakeholder mapping as a tool for enabling a joint engagement within PEDs. We compare various dimensions of stakeholder mapping, assessing how methodologies can support co-creation processes and foster collective action to mitigate energy poverty. By applying these approaches in the six different pilot sites in Europe, we present first insights into how different local actors can be brought together to collaboratively address energy vulnerabilities, challenges and opportunities.
By analyzing the interplay between energy citizenship and participatory governance, this research highlights the value of tailored stakeholder mapping approaches in strengthening collaboration and shared decision-making, which are integral to the democratic management of communities Our findings underscore the importance of place-based, inclusive strategies to enhance local engagement, ultimately driving more effective and equitable energy transitions within PEDs.

Marta Somoza Medina (p)

Álvaro García Riazuelo

The aim of the research is to analyse the complexity that rural territories should achieve in order to provide food, energy, entertainment and quality of life. The concentration of population in cities, the almost exhaustion of natural resources and the imminent change in climatic conditions make it necessary to redefine the way of life on a territorial scale. In the European context, where communities strengthen competitive models to maintain and improve the quality of life of their citizens, southern Germany reinforce the enhacement of its most valuable assets: the diversity of landscapes, the wealth of resources and the goodness os weather conditions, taking into account the perservation of natural and productive areas and the structure of settlements originated in traditional rural economies.
The research focuses on the production of renewable energy from wind, sun, water and biomass, mainly in the Bavarian region.

Álvaro García Riazuelo (p), Sol Maria Halleck-Vega

Niklas Elert

Aragon is one of the largest renewable energy producing regions in Spain and at the European level, consolidating in recent years as a leader in the installation of wind energy.
This paper analyses the development of wind energy in Aragon, among which its stages and potential factors that explain its installation in this territory. Understanding the process of expansion of this technology in space and time is key, given that the lack of land-use planning linked to these infrastructures is leading to a series of territorial conflicts. Understanding the historical evolution of Aragon as an energy producer and multilevel political management will help to understand this disorderly increase in wind energy.
Even more so, looking at the possible installation scenarios to be achieved in the coming years, doubling the current power in a short period. Therefore, this paper links concepts of the new Energy Geography, defining the energy transition process as a spatial-temporal process, all within a framework of a just energy transition.
From the methodological point of view, in addition to reviewing the historical energy evolution of Aragon, both renewable and non-renewable, its energy balances are analysed, as well as the multilevel decision-making between the state, the autonomous community and the municipality vis-à-vis decisions to install wind energy. In addition, spatial techniques such as point pattern analysis and Standard deviation ellipse method are used to analyse how wind energy has been installed based on temporal and geo-referenced data.
The results show that Aragon already produces more electricity, thanks to renewable sources, than it consumes. This makes the autonomous community a net exporter of electricity. The lack of territorial planning and horizontal integration between public administrations at all territorial levels explains this uncontrolled increase. This process has tended to be concentrated in space, and the installation of wind farms is not homogeneous over time. Moreover, this agglomeration pattern, surprisingly, has not changed over time, revealing important spillover effects in the diffusion process of this technology.
In short, understanding and characterising the process of installing wind energy as a spatio-temporal process, in which institutions play a relevant role, is key to the formulation of land-use planning policies, in order to meet more just environmental and energy objectives, taking into account the territory, thus minimising the possible conflicts that may arise.

Niklas Elert (p), Niklas Rudholm, Anders Bornhäll

Fabio Tejedor

A new class-3 environmental zone will be introduced in the central parts of Sweden’s capital, Stockholm. Within class-3 environmental zones, only electric, fuel cell, and Euro VI gas vehicles are allowed to operate. While environmental zones often have favorable environmental effects, their relative effectiveness can be questioned on both theoretical and empirical grounds.
Theoretically, this type of ban (so-called technological standards) limits flexibility for actors and locks development into certain technologies. To address environmental problems, prohibition-like measures are therefore seen as less economically effective than other measures (e.g., performance standards, emissions taxes, or emissions trading schemes). However, the knowledge surrounding whether environmental zones are economically effective pathways for adaptation is scarce. We fill this knowledge gap regarding the economic costs of environmental zones, generating new knowledge about Stockholm's new class-3 environmental zone through a longitudinal survey directed at owners and site managers in the retail, tourism, and service sectors.
The survey is based on a methodologically sound evaluation logic, as it will be distributed to both treatment and control groups (actors inside and outside the environmental zone) that will be followed over time. To our knowledge, no previous survey study of the economic effects of environmental zones has had an approach that enables the identification of causal effects in this way. The expected outcomes are detailed knowledge of the economic consequences of the environmental zone for actors in the retail, tourism, and service industries, as well as valuable insights into how different business actors' expectations and adaptations change over time.
An important ambition is to clarify what distinguishes business owners who have suffered (unintentionally) negative economic consequences from those who have not been significantly affected. This provides crucial information that can help future environmental zone policy makers more effectively achieve their environmental and health goals. We also try to identify strategies that have enabled business operators to adapt successfully to the new environmental zones. This increases the potential to understand the challenges that arise if Stockholm expands its class-3 environmental zone, or if other Swedish or international cities introduce such zones. The lessons learned should be relevant both to the business sector’s understanding of environmental zones in general, as well as to individual stores’ and business operators’ ability to adapt to this kind of development, which is important for their profitability and competitiveness.