Research field: Urban Transformations Towards Sustainability: A Law and Governance Perspective

Energy planning aims at avoiding CO2 emissions, increasing energy efficiency and increasing the share of renewable energies in cities. This requires an integrated analysis of spatial and energy-related planning issues at the municipal level. International examples indicate that a variety of (legal) instruments can be used in energy planning. These include energy-related stipulations in zoning plans, energy-related requirements in private contracts between cities and real estate developers or funding incentives. The integrated consideration of spatial planning and energy planning as well as the implementation of integrated energy supply solutions raise numerous legal questions. In this context legal aspects of energy planning in the City of Vienna are analysed in cooperation with the city administration. The findings can serve as a basis for the "Integrated Energy Planning" concept, as provided in the STEP 2025. The comprehensive analysis of the legal issues of energy spatial planning was continued within the framework of a dissertation project and very successfully completed. The results of the analysis were processed in a monograph, which was published by Verlag Österreich under the title “Das Recht der Energieraumplanung” in 2021.

Project Lead: Univ.Prof. Dr. Verena Madner