The research examines the development of the wind energy policy as an example of an open and complex implementation process. The wind energy policy is conceived here as a collective process through which landscape is created, judged upon and stabilised. The work is based on selected case studies in Germany, France and Portugal (13 case studies in total, 5 in France, 4 in Germany and 4 in Portugal). The concept of landscape used here encompasses the notions of a national culture of landscape, as well as that of local traditions and landscape management institutions. Our analysis highlights the links between landscape, wind power policy and planning institutions. Our findings show that landscape is a resource for the management of the energy transition. In each of the country analysed, we found that the culture of landscape is the medium through which wind power settles in a given territory. This finding is essential to the development of wind and other renewable energy policies. The case studies show how wind power development at the local level reshapes social relations and landscape perceptions. In France, they show the central role of landscape planning in four different modes of local governance of wind energy and the links between these governance patterns, conflicts and the reshaping of landscape perceptions and social relations.
