Keywords
smart energy
wind energy
sustainable development
How to Cite
Abstract
This article examines the potential for integrating wind energy into the development of smart cities in Poland. The analysis combines a synthetic measure of smart city potential, a wind energy availability index, and GIS-based spatial analysis, drawing on data from the Central Statistical Office (GUS) and the Energy Regulatory Office (URE). The study offers a novel contribution by linking renewable energy planning with the spatial dynamics of urban transformation. A central focus is placed on inter-municipal cooperation, particularly between rural municipalities hosting wind farms and urban centres, supported by Integrated Territorial Investment (ZIT) mechanisms. Such collaboration could facilitate the incorporation of wind energy into urban energy strategies. The study identifies key challenges, including insufficient wind potential near cities, high energy transmission costs, and limited spatial availability. While wind power is predominantly generated in northern regions—particularly along the Baltic coast—southern urban areas also receive this energy, albeit at a higher cost. The potential for smart city development is regionally differentiated: northern and western cities may benefit from smart energy infrastructure, whereas southern regions might prioritise solar or nuclear energy and focus on governance or quality of life enhancements. Ultimately, the research underscores the role of wind energy in advancing sustainable urban development and advocates for region-specific, cooperative approaches to support the smart transformation of Polish cities.
References
Cai, J., Ahmad, M., Irfan, M., Khan, I., & Razzaq, A. (2022). Modeling wind energy development barriers: Implications for promoting green energy sector. Energy Sources, Part B: Economics, Planning, and Policy, 17(1), 2118403. https://doi.org/10.1080/15567249.2022.2118403
Caragliu, A., & Bo, C. (2021). Smart cities and urban inequality. Regional Studies, 56(7), 1097-1112. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2021.1984421
Chatfield, A., & Reddick, C. (2016). Smart city implementation through shared vision of social innovation for environmental sustainability. Social Science Computer Review : A Case Study of Kitakyushu, Japan, 34(6), 757-773. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894439315611085
Chu, Z., Cheng, M., & Yu, N. (2021). Development potential of Chinese smart cities and its spatio‐temporal pattern: A new hybrid MADM method using combination weight. Growth and Change, 53(4), 1546-1566. https://doi.org/10.1111/grow.12528
Cirella, G., Russo, A., Benassi, F., Czermański, E., Goncharuk, A., & Oniszczuk-Jastrząbek, A. (2021). Energy re-shift for an urbanizing world. Energies, 14(17), 5516. https://doi.org/10.3390/en14175516
Coletta, C., Heaphy, L., & Kitchin, R. (2018). From the accidental to articulated smart city: The creation and work of ‘Smart Dublin’. European Urban and Regional Studies, 26(4), 349-364. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969776418785214
Diógenes, J. R. F., Claro, J., Rodrigues, J. C., & Loureiro, M. V. (2020). Barriers to onshore wind energy implementation: A systematic review. Energy Research & Social Science, 60, 101337. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2019.101337
Elmahmoudi, F., Abra, O., Raihani, A., Serrar, O., & Bahatti, L. (2020). Elaboration of a wind energy potential map in Morocco using GIS and analytic hierarchy process. Engineering Technology & Applied Science Research, 10(4), 6068-6075. https://doi.org/10.48084/etasr.3692
Energy Regulatory Office (URE). (2024, July 26). Potencjał krajowy OZE w liczbach. https://www.ure.gov.pl/pl/oze/potencjal-krajowy-oze/8108,Instalacje-odnawialnych-zrodel-energii-stan-na-31-grudnia-2023-r.html
Exner, J. P. (2014). Smart planning & smart cities. Proceedings REAL CORP 2014, 39, 603-610. http://www.corp.at/archive/CORP2014_39.pdf
Falco, S., Angelidou, M., & Addie, J. (2018). From the “smart city” to the “smart metropolis”? Building resilience in the urban periphery. European Urban and Regional Studies, 26(2), 205-223. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969776418783813
Geo, B., Pandala, M., Meenakshi, N., Pandimurugan, V., & Jeganathan, S. (2023). A novel energy optimization system for renewable demand using heuristics, distributed systems and machine learning in a smart city (preprint). https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2684377/v1
Giest, S. (2017). Big data analytics for mitigating carbon emissions in smart cities: Opportunities and challenges. European Planning Studies, 25(6), 941-957. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2017.1294149
Glaum, P., Neumann, F., & Brown, T. (2023). Offshore wind integration in the north sea: The benefits of an offshore grid and floating wind. 19th International Conference on the European Energy Market (EEM), Lappeenranta, Finland, 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1109/EEM58374.2023.10161875
Goess, S., Jong, M., & Meijers, E. (2016). City branding in polycentric urban regions: Identification, profiling and transformation in the Randstad and Rhine-Ruhr. European Planning Studies, 24(11), 2036-2056. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2016.1228832
Gracias, J. S., Parnell, G. S., Specking, E., Pohl, E. A., & Buchanan, R. (2023). Smart cities—A structured literature review. Smart Cities, 6(4), 1719-1743. https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities6040080
Herbert-Acero, J., Probst, O., Réthore, P., Larsen, G., & Castillo-Villar, K. (2014). A review of methodological approaches for the design and optimization of wind farms. Energies, 7(11), 6930-7016. https://doi.org/10.3390/en7116930
Janssen, J., Luiten, E., Renes, J., & Stegmeijer, E. (2017). Heritage as sector, factor and vector: Conceptualizing the shifting relationship between heritage management and spatial planning. European Planning Studies, 25(9), 1654-1672. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2017.1329410
Jung, C., & Schindler, D. (2021). Distance to power grids and consideration criteria reduce global wind energy potential the most. Journal of Cleaner Production, 317, 128472. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.128472
Kuvlesky, W., Brennan, L., Morrison, M., Boydston, K., Ballard, B., & Bryant, F. (2007). Wind energy development and wildlife conservation: Challenges and opportunities. Journal of Wildlife Management, 71(8), 2487-2498. https://doi.org/10.2193/2007-248
Maguire, D. J., Goodchild, M. F., & Rhind, D. W. (1991). Geographical information systems. Longman Scientific & Technical.
Manitiu, D., & Pedrini, G. (2016). Urban smartness and sustainability in Europe: An ex ante assessment of environmental, social and cultural domains. European Planning Studies, 24(10), 1766-1787. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2016.1193127
March, H., & Ribera-Fumaz, R. (2016). Smart contradictions: The politics of making Barcelona a self-sufficient city. European Urban and Regional Studies, 23(4), 816-830. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969776414554488
Miłek, D. (2020). Territorial diversity of availability of public services in Poland. Scientific Papers Of Silesian University Of Technology, Organization And Management Series, 146, 285-294. https://doi.org/10.29119/1641-3466.2020.146.21
Neffati, O. S., Sengan, S., Thangavelu, K. D., Kumar, S. D., Setiawan, R., Elangovan, M., Mani, D., & Velayutham, P. (2021). Migrating from traditional grid to smart grid in smart cities promoted in developing country. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments, 45, 101125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2021.101125
Negari, S. (2023). A new design of solid state circuit breaker for HVDC applications [Doctoral dissertation]. Toronto Metrpolitan University. https://doi.org/10.32920/ryerson.14644089.v1
Nicholds, A., Gibney, J., Mabey, C., & Hart, D. (2016). Making sense of variety in place leadership: The case of England’s smart cities. Regional Studies, 51(2), 249-259. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2016.1232482
Nishimura, A., Kakita, M., Murata, J., Ando, T., Kamada, Y., Hirota, M., & Kolhe, M. (2015). Optimization of building layouts to increase wind turbine power output in the built environment assumed to be installed at Fukushima city and Tsu city in Japan. Smart Grid and Renewable Energy, 6, 279-292. https://doi.org/10.4236/sgre.2015.69023
Parjanen, S., & Rantala, T. (2021). Building an open innovation platform as a part of city renewal initiatives. European Planning Studies, 29(12), 2165-2183. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2021.1903397
Parks, D. (2018). Energy efficiency left behind? Policy assemblages in Sweden’s most climate-smart city. European Planning Studies, 27(2), 318-335. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2018.1455807
Paskaleva, K. (2009). Enabling the smart city: The progress of city e-governance in Europe. International Journal of Innovation and Regional Development, 1(4), 405-422. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijird.2009.022730
Paskaleva, K., & Cooper, I. (2018). Open innovation and the evaluation of internet-enabled public services in smart cities. Technovation, 78, 4-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2018.07.003
Paskaleva, K., Evans, J., & Watson, K. (2021). Co-producing smart cities: A quadruple helix approach to assessment. European Urban and Regional Studies, 28(4), 395-412. https://doi.org/10.1177/09697764211016037
Ramli, M., & Bouchekara, H. (2020). Wind farm layout optimization considering obstacles using a binary most valuable player algorithm. IEEE Access, 8, 131553-131564. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2020.3009046
Rathi, S., & Gola, V. K. (2024). Innovative components of smart cities with a special focus of water distribution systems challenges and opportunities: A review. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 1326, 012146. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/1326/1/012146
Raven, R., Sengers, F., Spaeth, P., Xie, L., Cheshmehzangi, A., & Jong, M. (2017). Urban experimentation and institutional arrangements. European Planning Studies, 27(2), 258-281. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2017.1393047
Rose, F., Thiel, J., & Grabher, G. (2022). Selective inclusion: Civil society involvement in the smart city ecology of Amsterdam. European Urban and Regional Studies, 29(3), 369-382. https://doi.org/10.1177/09697764221092587
Simões, T., & Estanqueiro, A. (2016). A new methodology for urban wind resource assessment. Renewable Energy, 89, 598-605. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2015.12.008
Smigiel, C. (2018). Urban political strategies in times of crisis: A multiscalar perspective on smart cities in Italy. European Urban and Regional Studies, 26(4), 336-348. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969776418792049
Statistics Poland. (2024, July 26). Local Data Bank. https://bdl.stat.gov.pl/bdl/start
Varró, K., & Bunders, D. (2019). Bringing back the national to the study of globally circulating policy ideas: ‘Actually existing smart urbanism’ in Hungary and the Netherlands. European Urban and Regional Studies, 27(3), 209-226. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969776419893731
Verstraeten, T., Nowé, A., Keller, J., Guo, Y., Sheng, S., & Helsen, J. (2019). Fleetwide data-enabled reliability improvement of wind turbines. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 109, 428-437. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2019.03.019
Vukovic, N., Koriugina, U., Illarionova, D., Pankratova, D., Kiseleva, P., & Gontareva, A. (2023). Towards smart green cities: Analysis of integrated renewable energy use in smart cities. Strategic Planning for Energy and the Environment, 40(1), 75-94. https://doi.org/10.13052/spee1048-5236.4015
Zarębski, P., & Katarzyński, D. (2023). A theoretical framework for a local energy innovation system based on the renewable energy case of Poland. Energies, 16(9), 3695. https://doi.org/10.3390/en16093695
Zarębski, P., Katarzyński, D., Godlewska-Majkowska, H., Komor, A., & Gawryluk, A. (2024). Wind farms’ location and geographical proximity as a key factor in sustainable city development: Evidence from Poland. Energies, 17(14), 3447. https://doi.org/10.3390/en17143447
Zhou, B., Yang, Y., Li, W., & Zhang, C. (2016). Smart home energy management systems: Concept, configurations, and scheduling strategies. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 61, 30–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.03.047
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2025 Economics and Environment