| Abstract: | The increased exploitation of renewable energy sources is central to any move towards sustainable development. However, casting renewable energy thus carries with it an inherent commitment to other basic tenets of sustainability: openness; democraticization etc.The implications of this commitment for the developers of renewable energy projects are significant. Moreover, a failure to apply these broader principles to the development process risks alienating the very public whose views will determine the political future of renewable energy.From recent experience of the development of wind power in the UK, it is clear that it is no longer enough just to know the future technical potential of renewable energy, or even the regulatory and/or fiscal framework that would enable that potential to be realised. Increasingly we must concentrate on the practical politics of developing renewable energy that will ensure it is accepted and embraced by the public. Drawing on UK experience, guidelines can be established for renewable energy developers such that the principles of sustainable development are as central to exploitation renewable energy as renewable energy is to sustainability. |
