Brig, Switzerland, 12-13 November 2013
The demand for renewable energy is growing all over Europe. With abundant forests, rivers, mountains and plenty of sunshine, the Alpine countries possess optimal conditions for the production of energy from renewable sources. At the same time they are a unique habitat for animals, plants and people. It is a great challenge for society in the Alpine Space to determine where renewable sources can be safely used and where exploitation will have deleterious effects on human welfare, biodiversity, landscape and soils in the Alps.
The partners of the international project recharge.green are currently working to reconcile the use of renewable energy sources with nature protection and ecosystem service provisioning while keeping conflicts to a minimum. The project is establishing a decision-support-system for politicians and energy producers to facilitate the use of renewable energy resources in the Alpine region, while ensuring sustainable land use and preserving the unique biodiversity and soils.
The project partners presented their first results at the “International conference on balancing renewable energy and nature in the Alps” on 12 and 13 November 2013 in Brig/CH. They discussed these results with experts and representatives from varied sectors such as energy production, policy, nature protection, Alpine towns, tourism, as well as other interested parties. The main topics of the conference were the current use of renewable energy in the Alpine countries, both on a local level and in protected areas; potential for energy production from renewable energy sources in the Alpine space; the energy transition and the related environmental and political constraints.
Please find presentations of the conference, posters of the poster sessions and radio interviews with project partners and newspaper articles in our download section.
Visual impressions of the conference: