Planning and Settlement Conditions for the Development of Renewable Energy Sources in Poland: Conclusions for Local and Regional Policy

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of geographical-settlement and legal-planning conditions for the development of Poland’s distributed generation. The choice of this country is important and interesting due to the highly dispersed settlement, which may be a factor stimulating the development of this type of energy systems. For this reason, the analysis can be a model for other countries and regions, indicating ways to analyze and evaluate settlement and planning conditions for the development of renewable and distributed energy. At the same time, Poland is struggling with a severe crisis of spatial planning. By analysing these opportunities and threats, empirical analyses try to indicate regularities in this respect in Poland’s regions in a detailed approach to communes and detailed legal and planning conditions. The conclusions emphasise the usefulness of distributed generation development for peripheral and sparsely populated areas of Europe and other parts of the world and appropriate directions of changes in spatial development law.