Abstract
Visual impact and unequal cost-benefit distribution pose barriers to the acceptance of renewable energy needed to meet climate targets. Achieving sustainable energy transitions requires understanding how societal groups navigate environmental, economic, and equity trade-offs. Here, we develop a participatory energy system modeling framework that incorporates participants across the modeling process, systematically integrates their preferences, and enables iterative learning through feedback sessions. We find that Norwegian high school student preferences, particularly strong opposition to onshore wind in valued landscapes and specific regions, reduce land-based capacity potential by half, result in offshore wind entirely substituting onshore, and raise system costs by up to 25%. These costly youth-driven systems are not necessarily more equitable. Feedback sessions reveal that exposure to trade-offs encouraged preference reconsideration and fostered deeper understanding of transition challenges. This study supports structured reflection on system trade-offs and provides a replicable methodology for systematically integrating stakeholder perspectives into technically rigorous energy planning.