^{SmallWind4Cities}

Small wind turbines are an interesting option for a resilient and sustainable energy supply in large and small cities based on local energy supply. Besides PV the represent one of the few options to harvest energy in populated areas. Despite small wind turbines have made significant progress over the last years and become a reliable and relevant technology, they often go under the radar in Austria and see their advantages disregarded. Reasons for small wind turbines being unable to establish on the market are the lack of clear guidelines during permission processes as well as the still persistent complexity in site assessment.

In order to change this situation, the project aims at the following goals: 
(A) Raise awareness and acceptance for the technology and clear reservation towards the technology by: 

The project primary addresses the following two fields of action: 

Urban ecology and climate adaptation: Small wind energy is one of the few technologies that allows for a sustainable harvesting of natural resources within urban areas and thus can give a contribution to resilient urban structures. The planning of such projects however needs to happen in a socially compliant fashion – especially with increasing spread of the technology. In order to secure this, objective transdisciplinary criteria are required. This project aims at raising those criteria. 

Energy supply and usage: When it comes to resilient urban energy supply which not only relies on the surrounding areas, it appears to be beneficial fo force the deployment of small wind technology. This project aims at implementing this by creating simple planning methods and including communities and policy makers

Contributions to the goals of the program:

• Bring research results onto the field: During various previous research projects the turbines that are used in this project have been refined and brought to marketability. This project gives them the opportunity to be tested in the built environment. 
• Creating room for experimentation in the urban environment: There are only very few cities in Europe have implemented SWT in populated areas. This project establishes a room for experimentation for SWT in an urban environment embedding visitors by actively giving the information through info screens and hand on experiments 
• Create a municipal added value and climatic impact: Currently there are only very few options besides PV for municipalities and cities to harvest climate-neutral energy in populated or urban areas. Small wind energy offers a large potential in this regard which this project aims to unlock in order to give municipalities an additional option.