Spatial planning in Poland and Estonia for promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy sources - Theoretical background

Panel: Panel 1: Assessment of Energy Efficiency Policy

Author:
Katrin Blechschmidt, Energiestiftung Schleswig-Holstein

Abstract

Poland and Estonia belong to the Central and East European countries that will first join the European Union within the next years. Thus they have to implement the aims of the EU policy which in the energy sector includes the striving for more efficiency and renewable energy utilisation.

To reach this goal, not only technical and economical systems are needed, but also suitable spatial planning systems. Therefore a research study was started concentrating on the analyses of the structure and legal basis of the planning systems in Poland and Estonia.

The aim is to identify how energy efficiency and a wider use of renewable energies are promoted by spatial planning and what future potentials exist in this field. As a precondition, spatial planning systems of other countries, e.g. Denmark and Germany, have been looked at for decisive factors that make them successful in supporting energy efficiency and renewables.

In the ongoing project it will be examined if and how these factors could be transferred to the planning systems in Poland and Estonia. Furthermore, the spatial planning policy of the European Union will be examined with focus on how the EU influences and supports the restructuring of the transition economies' planning systems, and what could possibly be improved on the side of the EU, e.g. by developing European wide planning guidelines.

At the current status of the project the theoretical background has been worked out; an in-depth analysis of the spatial planning systems in Poland and Estonia will have to follow.