A.The map of Germany does not show any places, streets or elevations – it is white with lots of green and black hatched areas, of which there are more in the lower half than in the upper half. The areas mark “particularly significant landscapes”, and the map can be found in a study that has not yet been published and commissioned by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation. The title: “Recommendations for the application of landscape assessment methods using the example of renewable energies”. The study evaluates several other studies, making it the first attempt to create a uniform basis on which landscapes in Germany can be assessed; something that not only landscape planners consider to be urgently needed in view of the imminent expansion of renewable energies.
When Economics and Climate Protection Minister Robert Habeck speaks of the visible effects of his most important project, he sometimes sounds shirt-sleeved, sometimes worn. “Not everyone applauds,” he said in one interview, “the face of the country will change” in another. It always resonates with the great challenge the project represents to obtain 80 percent of electricity from renewable energies in 2030 – not only economically, not only because there are conflicts between climate protection and species protection and because some people fear that it makes you sick to live next to a wind turbine, but also: because you will see the energy transition. This raises questions: What makes a landscape? What is that actually, a beautiful landscape? Do wind turbines and photovoltaic systems make them less beautiful? Could something like a new aesthetic be achieved?
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