IEA Wind Task 43 Webinar Series
Many challenges in wind energy development are social rather than purely technical, involving public trust, biodiversity concerns, and the inclusion of diverse stakeholder perspectives. This webinar explores how digital technologies, such as digital design and decision support systems, can move beyond technical optimisation to support collaborative governance. Drawing on research from the CODEWIND project and previous work on social aspects of wind energy and digitalisation, Helena will discuss how digital tools are used to facilitate the integration of scientific, local, and stakeholder knowledge in order to make decision-making more transparent and inclusive. The session concludes by discussing the role of digital tools in wind energy governance and about opportunities and challenges in interdisciplinary collaboration, including but not limited to the IEA Wind Task 43.
Dr. Helena Solman is a postdoctoral researcher at Wageningen University, Environmental Policy Group. Her research focuses on the social dimensions of offshore wind energy, collaborative governance, environmental monitoring, and digitalisation in environmental decision-making. She leads social science research within the Code-Wind project, which explores how digital co-design tool could better integrate stakeholder knowledge and values into offshore wind planning and management. Her work combines qualitative social science methods with science and technology studies to examine how digital innovations influence environmental governance, stakeholder participation, and knowledge production in the energy transition.