The main focus of the paper is the investigation of the social potential of local renewable energy utilization in a rural peripheral region in Hungary. Public acceptance of biomass-based renewable energy sources can be crucial for rural communities in realization of their sustainable development strategy. The research area was Koppany Valley Natur Park 2000, a microregion of 10 settlements located in the South Transdanubian region. This microregion is characterized by poor and depressive socioeconomic and demographical conditions, despite its significant natural resources. The microregion’s complex development strategy includes the utilization of local resources of renewable energy. Local population survey (n = 310) was conducted (in May 2018) on local biomass potential, knowledge, and attitudes of the local stakeholders in the microregion. Multinomial logistic regression model estimates the acceptance of population, explanatory variables are categorical demographical (personal) factors and specific factors (based on answers of respondents). Trust in local authorities, knowledge on biomass in general and on specific technologies, as well as the education level of rural inhabitants are significant factors in supporting biomass plant establishment. Further, the group and characteristics of acceptance groups that the local development strategy may consider were defined.

The Hungarian Government decided on the establishment of the South Transdanubian Economic Development Zone. The identification of the areas formed by clustering settlements of similar features will help better target development goals and funds to the region. The development concepts of the counties (forming the region) were reviewed and each of the 656 settlements of the region were put into categories. The categories were formed according to the county concepts; classification of the space followed all of the area classifications mentioned in them: development goals, priorities, strategic categories or sectoral targets. It has been found that 291 settlements have not been targeted by the county concepts at all. Further 177 ones are classified as deprived areas either because of their peripheral situation or their underdevelopment status by law. 62 settlements are mentioned as ones to be targeted with either economic development programmes or classified as growth zones. The latter category consists of 26 settlements, which are either growth, industrial, innovative or logistic centres according to the development concepts. Tourism related developments are targeted and may be outbreak points in 176 settlements. The threat to the development of rural areas due to shrinking medium sized cities must be addressed. Our review and classification of South Transdanubian Region’s settlements adds the value of the multifaceted approach through the application of the county development concepts.

Maintaining the retention capacity of the rural areas is one of the comprehensive aims of rural development, as the 2nd pillar of the Common Agricultural Policy. Fair income opportunities, available services, sustainable environment are key factors to make rural areas at least as attractive as the more urbanized parts of a regions. Younger generations are the most important target group of population retention throughout Europe. According to Eurostat data, only 11% of all farmers are under 40 in the EU member states. Therefore, supporting young farmers and promoting generational change have been measures of keeping the rural population in the countryside. In our paper, we present the development of young farmers’ support in Hungary. Based on empirical data the study analyses the results and successfulness of the program between 2014 and 2020. The data of the examined timeframe is compared with the results of the previous programming period. The upshot of these calculations shows the progressive effects of the changes in the EU programming and policy making. For the empirical analysis secondary data are provided by the Hungarian Ministry of Innovation and Technology which maintains the web-based database of project calls and results regarding the development programmes in Hungary.

Development goals, priorities and strategies need to be based on available (local) resources, which are identified as either comparative advantages or uniform development goals at certain planning level. Core development policies of the region take centrum-periphery theory as the primary approach in planning allocating development funds. In this paper authors developed four settlement clusters based on their local resources (HCSO, AC, T-STAR database, 44 variables, cross section 2018). Few Strong and capable cities (n=31) are accompanied by mainly Agricultural villages (n=155) and there are settlements (n=170) with Concentrated capacities. But majority of the region’s area (n=299) has Limited resources. The classification of the settlements can be used in gravity models that test the pull effect of central cities on the complex development of the surrounding settlements.