Angol
The climate crisis has placed cities at the forefront of the energy transition. In a context of increasing vulnerability-shaped by dependence on fossil fuels, volatility in the energy market, and the European Union's decarbonization targets-urban areas must redefine their relationship with energy. In Spain and Portugal, located in Southern Europe, climatic conditions, urban development patterns and socio-spatial inequalities strongly influence the challenges associated with the transition to more sustainable energy systems.
This book's distinctive multi-scalar approach connects processes occurring within cities with broader territorial transformations unfolding across metropolitan regions and rural hinterlands. Within this framework, two key scales help explain the complex relationship between energy and the city. At the micro scale, this edited volume examines energy management within the consolidated urban fabric, addressing issues such as energy efficiency, building retrofitting, climate adaptation, urban comfort, and the opportunities offered by energy communities and both individual and collective self-consumption systems. Attention is paid to vulnerable neighborhoods and districts. At the macro scale, the book explores urban sprawl and the metropolitan restructuring of functional urban areas through changing land uses, evolving urban-rural relationships, emerging territorial functions, and landscape transformations. Both scales are analysed within the broader regulatory and policy framework shaping the energy transition.
Case studies from Spain and Portugal illustrate dynamics operating at micro and macro levels, ranging from the implementation of individual and collective self-consumption systems and energy communities to the integration of renewable energy facilities in metropolitan areas. The chapters in this book address not only the opportunities associated with the transition, but also the tensions it generates, including land-use conflicts, landscape impacts, energy poverty, climate vulnerability, social mobilisation and emerging forms of territorial inequality. Contributions examine the strategies adopted by some municipalities to reconcile heritage conservation with decentralised energy production, as well as the planning challenges arising from the large-scale deployment of renewable
