Guidelines for the installation of renewable energy-related infrastructures and equipment and their potential impact on cultural heritage

The climate emergency and current energy crisis has spurred frenetic renewable energy development throughout our landscapes, villages and cities. In this context, the ICOMOS National Committee in Spain (hereinafter, ICOMOS-Spain) has united professionals from all over the country to work together to compile practices, ideas and concerns to ensure that our rich cultural heritage values are integrated into the implementation of these forms of more sustainable energy. To achieve this, we require a country-wide planning approach which includes a thorough analysis of each site to simplify decision making and minimize the impact on cultural assets (tangible and intangible). Current Spanish cultural heritage and environment legislation (both at national and regional levels, according to the 1978 Constitution) lacks specific information on how the impact of facilities and infrastructures (in this case, wind or photovoltaic energy) on cultural assets should be assessed, both in the context of the Environmental Impact Assessment and the authorization for projects on protected cultural assets. Therefore, these Guidelines aim to help legislators, decision makers, government department technical staff, facility developers and project planners advance towards the much sought after compatibility between renewable energy and the conservation and protection of our cultural heritage values, using the Heritage Impact Assessment Methodology (HIA), published in mid- 2022 by UNESCO and its three advisory bodies, ICOMOS, IUCN and ICCROM. Finally, a series of interesting case studies from other European countries (Austria/Hungary, France, Germany and the United Kingdom) compiled by UNESCO and the French Ministry of Ecological Transition have been included. ICOMOS-Spain, the local branch of an extensive international network of heritage experts, hopes these Guidelines will facilitate renewable energy analysis and planning in relation to our cultural heritage and, above all, that the Guidelines will give rise to many case studies that can be exported and shared throughout the country, so that heritage becomes part of the solution in the midst of this global climate change process.