S2Z sub-project: optimizing renewable energy for biodiversity and public acceptance

Across the world there is an urgent need to transition towards renewable energies. Switzerland is attempting to do this by accelerating solar and wind park deployment. However, like many other countries, there is local resistance to such concrete installation plans, regardless of widespread acceptance for transitioning towards renewable energies. An important source of such local resistance is the importance given to nature conservation, as well as the perceived incompatibility between the new infrastructure and chosen landscapes. In this project, we will develop and evaluate a Swiss-wide map which accurately represents the potential local acceptance of renewable energy infrastructure (wind and solar). We then use this map, in conjunction with models developed within Speed2Zero, representing important dimensions of biodiversity sensitivity (ex: Extinction Risk), to find optimized placements in a nation-wide strategy for renewable energy placement. We will do this using genetic algorithms with 3 main objectives: energy potential, biodiversity conservation, public acceptance.  As genetic algorithms provide complex solutions that can be difficult to interpret. We will also develop a web-tool that allows users to intuitively explore the solutions of our research, highlighting potential local impacts within municipalities across Switzerland, and allowing users to easily get an idea of local-scale impacts across multiple national-scale strategies.