Sustainable energy transition—the shift from a fossil-fuel based energy system to one based on renewable sources—is motivated by environmental, (socio-)economic and geopolitical factors [
1,
2,
3]. In the coming decades, the transition to renewable energy is expected to make an important contribution to the process of sustainable development [
3,
4].
Historically, much of the world’s energy is provided by the (natural) environment and, in turn, its exploitation often had a considerable impact on the landscape [
5,
6,
7]. Because of this reciprocal relationship, Ghosn [
8], Bloemers,
et al. [
9], Stremke and van den Dobbelsteen [
10], Ivančić [
11], Radzi [
12] and van Hoorn and Matthijsen [
13], amongst others, argue that energy transition represents a challenge for those involved in planning and design. From the mid-1990s, landscape architects world-wide have been involved in studying the visual impact of wind parks [
14] and developing strategies for siting wind turbines in the landscape [
15,
16]. More recently, however, a more strategic approach to energy transition has emerged that includes fostering a sustainable realization of energy transition goals from a spatial perspective [
17,
18,
19]. To this end, academics working in the field of landscape architecture developed spatial design concepts and principles, based on insights derived from renewable energy science, thermodynamics, systems science, and ecology [
20,
21,
22]. The process of implementing the envisaged strategic approach would begin with surveying and mapping potential energy saving and generation resources in a selected environment using, for example, Energy Potential Mapping methodologies and GIS [
1,
23,
24]. In addition this approach to energy-conscious planning and design would involve making spatially explicit scenarios and envisioning (long-term) interventions [
1,
25,
26,
27].
The relevance of knowledge and theory as the basis for planning and design is addressed in notions such as “knowledge-based design” [
28], “evidence-based practice” [
29], “evidence-based landscape architecture” [
30], and “evidence-based design” [
31,
32]. To enhance the development of landscape architecture as an academic discipline and to provide a bases for evidence-based practice Meijering,
et al. [
33] and Deming and Swaffield [
31] emphasize the importance of a shared and focused research agenda in landscape architecture. In the context of energy transition, the departure point for evidence-based landscape design practice can be found in renewable energy science, and the studies referred to above that translate fundamental insights into spatial design concepts, principles and procedures for energy-conscious design. That evidence-based approaches are appropriate in the context of energy transition assignments was illustrated by Twidell and Weir [
3] (p. 2) who concluded that “
Failure to understand the distinctive scientific principles will almost certainly lead to poor engineering and uneconomic operation”. Although landscape design operates at larger levels of scale than individual technical installations, it can be argued that insights from renewable energy science will enhance effective energy-conscious planning and designing. Given the importance and availability of insights, it is surprising that there is a lack of empirical research into whether and how practitioners in landscape design take up the challenge of energy transition. Our research question, therefore, is: To what extent and how is renewable energy science incorporated in regional landscape design? To answer this question we studied the results of the
Ninth Eo Wijers Regional Landscape Design Competition (
The Ninth Eo Wijers Competition), because it focused on integral, strategic landscape transformations and energy transition as a major theme. Other landscape design competitions that referred to energy transition, tended to focus on smaller levels of scale and/or land art (for instance [
34,
35,
36]). It was decided to focus on a design competition instead of (implemented) design projects for two reasons. First, studying the products of an ideas competition allowed to focus on the designer’s intentions given that designs, compared to implemented projects, are less influenced by practical, financial and political factors [
37]. Moreover, studying competition entries made it possible to compare designs, because each team was working on the same assignment set by the competition and subject to the same social context and time frame [
38].
The structure of this paper is as follows.
Section 2 contains a description of
The Ninth Eo Wijers Competition. In
Section 3, key-strategies from renewable energy science crucial for energy-conscious planning and design are elaborated within a theoretical framework. Research materials and methods are described in
Section 4. In
Section 5 there is a detailed discussion of results of this study. The conclusions are summarized in
Section 6.