How Can Renewable Energy Development Coexist with Landscape and Cultural Heritage Protection?

Striking a balance between the development of renewable energy sources (RES) and the protection of the landscape and cultural heritage is a key challenge for the development of a sustainable future in Italy. This is also demonstrated by the recent regulations that have come into force regarding the suitability of areas for the siting of renewable energy plants, which are increasingly putting the spotlight on this issue.

Regulatory framework

In Italy, the code that regulates the protection of cultural heritage and landscape is Legislative Decree 42/2004, which constitutes the legal basis for the protection of the heritage of the entire national territory. The Code introduces and clarifies the concept of protection and divides the assets to be protected into two basic categories:

• Cultural heritage (part II) includes all movable and immovable property which, as a manifestation of the values of a civilisation, provides evidence of history, art, archaeology, ethnology, archives and libraries. The protection of these assets aims to preserve and enhance the cultural heritage of the country and to ensure public enjoyment.
• Landscape assets (Part III), defined as those parts of the territory with distinctive features that need special protection and enhancement, such as natural beauties, landscapes, coastal areas, rivers and parks. In this case, the aim of the protection is to prevent the deterioration of these areas and to ensure that territorial transformations are compatible with the preservation of the landscape values of the areas [1].

Integration between sustainable development and conservation

In order to ensure a balance between the production of renewable energy and the protection of the landscape and cultural heritage, it is essential to adopt an integrated approach to the design of energy production systems. Agrivoltaic systems, which combine energy production with the preservation of the agricultural function of the land, can certainly be an example of this integration, but not the only one. The planning of installations should aim at the coexistence of the two systems, taking into account the historical and cultural characteristics of the landscape and adopting measures to mitigate installations in areas of high landscape or cultural value [2].

The landscape cannot be considered as a static asset, but rather as an element that is constantly evolving and adapting to the needs of the communities that inhabit it throughout history. In an article published in the Manifesto of June 2022, Enzo Scandurra – former Professor of Town Planning at La Sapienza University in Rome, Director of the Department of Urban Planning and Architecture – launches a provocation: “The landscape changes, it has always changed, both in the big cities and in the countryside. And now we are forced to change it again, and this time urgently. What we call landscape is a process of adaptation and co-evolution between man and the environment and is therefore modifiable over time. If we don’t want to run the risk of extinction, we will have to change our criteria of evaluation, accepting that the landscape of the near future will be different from the one we know today.”, thus demonstrating the urgency of adapting to change, even for the “most sincere supporters of environmental causes”, in favour of a new landscape, which could lead to a new co-evolution between man and the environment [3].

Therefore, it will certainly be necessary to guarantee the widespread quality of the landscape, as expressed by the European Landscape Convention itself, but to find new ways of expressing it through dialogue and cooperation between developers and local authorities. This will benefit both the landscape-cultural system in which it is inserted and the local communities themselves, by triggering a virtuous socio-economic process [4]. Aware of the limited effectiveness of prescriptive regulations alone, it is necessary to activate dialogue tools that, in addition to raising questions and drawing attention to the relationship between the project and the territorial context, propose the structuring of clear and shared guidelines. These do not preclude a new development of the territory but have as their objective the search for innovative solutions for the integration of projects in complex landscape-cultural contexts [4].

Similarly, the involvement of local communities is essential to ensure that renewable energy development projects are accepted and supported. Participation and public consultation can help identify local concerns and integrate community needs into project planning. This approach can improve the quality of projects and strengthen the link between sustainable development and heritage conservation.

To conclude, the challenge of combining RES development with protecting cultural landscape heritage requires a multidisciplinary and participatory approach. Current legislation provides a robust but unclear protection framework. Therefore, careful planning and the adoption of advanced technologies and methodologies are required to ensure the necessary growth of renewable energy while preserving cultural and landscape values. Integrating solutions such as agrivoltaic systems, using preliminary land assessment tools and adopting mitigation measures in the territorial context represent fundamental steps towards a sustainable future that respects and enhances our heritage.

Bibliography

[1] “Legislative Decree no. 42 of 22 January 2004. Cultural Heritage and Landscape Code”, pursuant to Article 10 of Law 137 of 6 July 2002.

[2] MiBACT, & Osservatorio Nazionale per la qualità del paesaggio. (2017, October). “Report on the State of Landscape Policies”. Rome: CLAN Group.

[3] Scandurra, E. (2022, June 02). “The necessary change in our Landscape”. Il Manifesto, p. 15.

[4] Laviscio, R. (2019, 04). “Landscape and renewable energy. The support of territorial authorities to an integrated design”. Ri-Vista. Research for Landscape Architecture, 16(2), p. 66-85. https://doi.org/10.13128/RV-24895