Renewable Energies in Between Landscape and Landmark: Case Studies

When do renewable energies become architecture and landscape? When can they be considered a plus for a landscape? These are the key questions of the study carried out by the local unit of the Politecnico di Milano as part of the Program of National Interest (PRIN) financed by the Ministry of Education, University and Research . After the identification of an organized information system, several case studies were analysed and this led to a first classification of the energy systems, based on the size, source, power, ... it was then studied a method that could allow to define which system, more than others, could be positive and appropriate for a given territory. Many are, in fact, the techniques for the analysis and management of the impact that changes can have on a man-made system: multidimensional investigations, multi-criteria , multivariate analysis , complex assessments borrowed from landscape ecology . All these techniques, however, seem to assume that the landscape is an unmodifiable good to be preserved and that any human action, especially related to energy systems, should be related to the production of the minimum possible impact. The starting point here wants to be different, as different is the concept of landscape and different is the idea of Energy Systems (ES), considered not as just plants, but as indivisible union of the plant with its support and its functions and therefore with the place in which it is located. In this sense, the ES has all the features to be considered a landmark, as marker of land and reference point. (Golledge 1987).