Background: Beyond the motivation to reduce the environmental impact of energy production, the economic rationale is a key incentive for local communities to become involved in renewable energy (RE). Substituting imported fossil fuels or final energy with RE sources creates opportunities at the local level to establish steps of the RE value chain, resulting in value added and employment in the respective region's RE sector. Methods: The model approach is described and applied to the example of onshore wind energy. Subsequently, the implementation of the model for an average model municipality is explained, which then serves as the basis for calculating the model results. The model was designed for the specific conditions in Germany but the approach can be transferred to other countries. Results: A total of 9.3 million euros of municipal value added and 166 jobs could have been generated in the RE sector in the average model municipality in Germany in 2011. The value chain stage of systems manufacture contributed the largest share, but in total, the continuous effects, i.e., the effects generated by operation and maintenance (O&M) and in the system operator stage, were greater. Conclusions: The model introduced in this paper allows for a detailed analysis of the extent and distribution of RE value-added and employment effects at the local level. The results show that the use of RE has significant potential to create value added and employment throughout Germany's RE sector, even in regions without manufacturing industries. Knowledge of these effects can be an important input to local decision-making processes, increase acceptance, and enhance motivation to further expand decentralized RE generation.

The German federal states and their communities can benefit on a large scale from the use of renewable energies, which induce important local benefits due to their decentralized structure. The model developed by the Institute for Ecological Economy Research is the first to quantify generated effects on value added and employment on a local, regional and countrywide scale. Net value added is calculated as the sum of three components: tax revenues, company profits and wages, which are generated by the involved agents along the value chains of the examined 29 technologies. A comparison of value added and employment effects generated by the wind energy sector between the German federal states of Baden-Württemberg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Brandenburg reveals their specific competitive advantages in the value chain. Furthermore, the analysis shows that the wind energy sector can create value added and employment in various ways. Regional policies can help exploit the competitive advantages of the federal states but also aim to diversify local industries to participate and compete in multiple steps of the value chain.

Background: Renewable energy (RE) creates opportunities for sustainable, socioeconomic development of local communities as fossil fuel-based energy imports are substituted with local RE sources. Established methods such as input-output (I/O) analysis face limitations when assessing these regional effects due to insufficient model integration of RE sectors. For Germany, regional value-added modeling based on RE value chain analysis is recognized as a viable alternative approach. The international transferability of this model is tested for the case of Japan.

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Der Rohstoff Holz wird zunehmend knapper. Dazu hat die deutlich gestiegene Nachfrage nach Holz für die energetische und stoffliche Nutzung beigetragen. Wenn diese Nachfrage künftig auch bedient werden soll, sind Strategien zur Angebotserhöhung notwendig.