۱- Introduction

۲- Materials and methods

۳- Results and discussion

۴- Conclusions and policy recommendations

References

Abstract

The study presents an effort to classify the territories of a specific area, according to similarities in the estimated potential of their renewable sources, considering also their economic and sociodemographic structure and their geographic features. Specifically, the paper focuses on the area of EU28 and Switzerland and uses as basis for the analysis, data estimating the potential of renewable energy sources collected and elaborated in the framework of the project HotMaps (Horizon 2020). The method used to group the territorial units is cluster analysis, and specifically the k-means algorithm. The data present some interesting patterns and the territories of EU28 and Switzerland at NUTS3 level are classified into 17 clusters. The analysis shows the presence of heterogeneity within national borders and among territories comprised in the macro regions target of specific EU programmes, specifically the Adriatic-Ionian region, the Alpine region, the Baltic Sea region and the Danube region. The results of this research are meant to be used by European policy makers in developing more focused transnational renewable energy policies and strategies.

Introduction

Energy production and use represent a large share of greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global warming and climate change. Replacing fossil fuels with renewable sources of energy provides the opportunity to tackle these phenomena by limiting the increase of global temperature. In 2014, the European Council renewed its commitment to the energy transition through the 2030 Energy Strategy, which, among other goals, aims at reaching a target of 27% for the share of renewables in energy consumption within 2030 [1]. EU leaders have been putting in place a structured framework of policies and guidelines encouraging renewable energy production in order to reach the ambitious goals of the 2030 Energy Strategy [2,3]. These policies do not have the same outcomes in all European countries, and this could happen for two reasons. First, each country of EU28 has different policies, planning cultures and instruments for the promotion of renewable energies [4]; when investigating the conditions for an effective promotion of renewable energies, Reiche and Bechberger [4] found some Member States to be more successful than others in promoting renewable energies. On another level, a reason for some territories to be more successful in promoting renewable energy than other could reside in the fact that EU energy programmes are often put in place either at national level or within the boundaries of macroregions, although both countries and macro-regions often comprise very diverse territories responding to policies in different ways. In order to support consistent outcomes from renewable energy promotion policies across Europe, two elements are crucial: promoting an effective exchange of information about successful conditions and practices and inform the implementation of EU energy policy with a more comprehensive knowledge of the territories at local level. At the same time, the increase in renewable energy production challenges scientists and researchers to deal with the assessment of natural resource availability in European territories. In the literature, several works [5–۱۱] investigated renewable energy potential in the EU. Some studies [6,11] deal with raster data about energy potential at high spatial resolution, while others [5,7–۹] assess the potential of renewable energy sources at country level. These approaches compute the energy potential starting from physical and geographic data. The methodologies differ according to the assumptions for the definition of the energy potential.