Renewable Energy
Good practice at local and regional level
Centre Albert Borschette, Brussels, 1 July 2002

• Rapporteur's Report
• Virtual Event
• Proceedings
• Background to the Workshop
• Programme

This workshop was the second of a series of workshops organised by ManagEnergy within the process of facilitating global thinking on strategic, local issues. The aim of the workshop was to support local actors in their capacity building process and in their development of concrete replication strategies.

The workshop started with a welcoming address by the chairman, Ann Segerborg-Fick from the Swedish Energy Agency.

Karl Kellner, Head of Unit at DG TREN, presented the main points of the Commission's policies and measures to promote renewable energy in general and promotion of renewable at local level in particular. The aim and the reason for setting up the ManagEnergy initiative was presented, as well as the key policy documents constituting the framework of the Commission's actions. It was pointed out that the Commission aimed for a better market need approach, in which the Commission should act together with the local and regional energy management agencies, support Candidate countries, foster faster learning and initiate transparency and cost-efficient measures.

Peter Niermeijer from RECS described the idea behind the Renewable Energy Certificate Systems (RECS) and how this intended to work. RECS is a voluntary project initiated by utilities in Europe, and has been in developing the test phase actions in the Netherlands and in Germany. There were three important functions mentioned: issuing, registration and redeeming of certificates. The importance of harmonization is crucial in order for certificates to be traded from one EU country to the other was also mentioned. The certificate's possibilities for the local level was stressed with the example of wind energy. Through local initiatives local demand can be covered, and the certificates will be the "guarantee" that it is used for the local level. This will make it easier to convince the local authorities to go ahead with wind energy implementation, instead of ending up in the "not in my backyard"-discussion. The costs included in the certificate system was mentioned for the Dutch case (the most expensive one), in which the issuing and registration accounted for 15 Euro cents per MWh and the redeeming process for an equal amount. In total it ended up in 30 Euro cents per MWh. In addition, the transfer of the certificates added another 5 Euro cents per MWh. More information is available on www.recs.org.

Bruce Douglas from the European Wind Energy Association, a member of EREC, replaced Christine Lins in presenting the work and ideas within the European Renewable Energy House. The objectives of EREC is to promote the use of renewable energy, and to make sure it was included where appropriate in the Commission's policies. In addition, they have several thematic networks running to ensure the process is positive from the organisation's point of view.

Seamus Hoyne from the Tipperary Energy Agency presented a successful implementation process for wind energy on Ireland. On Ireland the renewable energy share of the primary energy production is only 2 %, but the aim is to increase the share. The presentation dealt specifically with a community based in Templederry, Co. Tipperary, Ireland which is seeking to develop wind energy as part of the 'Environmental Protection' goal within their Community Development Plan. A feasibility study was completed on wind energy, the community group then purchased an anemometer and erected this on a site, selected in conjunction with the Tipperary Energy Agency (TEA). It was the opinion of the Agency that this is the first community group in Ireland to actually own and utilise an anemometer. The community group can now, and are, assessing the energy resource in their area and will then move to discuss with wind developers now this can be best harnessed such that the benefits to the community are maximised. The community has taken ownership of another of the resources in their area 'the wind' and is moving towards utilising this effectively.

They stressed the social benefits of the project, as it included an interaction process between the community inhabitants, as well as job creation and investment opportunities is rural areas as key issues to take into account in the planning process for other energy agencies. Training/education of the local decision makers was mentioned as the key activity for success.

Vladimir Hecl from Energy Centre Bratislava made a presentation of the situation for renewable in general and for solar in particular in the Slovak republic. The solar energy market in Slovakia is at present supplying 7 GWh of energy annually, and the number of collectors are 7,000 collectors and 0.6 m2 per 1,000 inhabitants. The main barriers for implementation in Slovakia are lack of awareness and lack of confidence, as well as financial incentives. He also presented three cases in which they had managed to succeed in the implementation process. They had in those cases focused on awareness raising issues, showing good examples and found financial solutions through soft loans. He also mentioned that this ManagEnergy web site is a key tool for their development of knowledge etc. in Slovakia.

The situation for biomass in Poland was presented by Krzysztof Gierulski from EC BREC in Gdansk. The key barriers mentioned was lack of experience and knowledge. They have used developed RES plans in the country, pointed out the job creation effect and the fact that the projects should be technically sound (not BAT, but technology well demonstrated and in use elsewhere) to promote biomass implementation in Poland. He gave three examples in which he had found successful developments: CHP training and study tour actions together with Swedish and Finnish OPET colleagues, agriculture biogas CHP combined with wood chips DHP project with Danish Energy Agency and a Joint implementation project together with Dutch authorities. Gierulski pointed out the necessity for awareness raising aspects, training of key actors and study tours (showing good examples).

After the lunch break Jean-Paul Launay from DG TREN presented the Commission's actions related to sustainable communities. The objective is to demonstrate that it is possible to satisfy the demand of a community, through the cooperation of its members by using different RES in local and decentralised energy systems combined with RUE technologies. Apart from other previously mentioned barriers, it was stressed that research into new sociological approaches to optimise RES awareness and behaviour of consumers / citizens towards RES and RUE are essential, as well as new relationships and partnerships between local energy actors, contribution to acceptability of RES integration and RUE development and improvement of quality of life and social cohesion. The ultimate aim is to contribute to local sustainable development.

The priorities used by the Commission to select good examples (Campaign for Take-Off - CTO communities) are:

1. demonstration capacities
2. involvement of local and regional actors (including local and regional energy agencies)

More information is available on www.cordis.lu/rtd2002

Bioenergy activities carried out in Southeast Sweden were presented by Daniel Hagberg, Energy Agency for Southeast Sweden. A number of actions performed by the agency was presented of which being a partner in the CTO campaign Fossil Fuel Free Växjö now being extended to the county as a whole. The networking between the agency and research institutions and other important market actors was mentioned. The results from the project "Nearby Heating Kronoberg" was presented, in which municipalities including politicians, university, market actors and the agency itself has been involved. In this project capacity building and awareness raising activities has been used,and the energy capacity has been raised to about 130 MW of biomass (35 plants) excluding CHP plants in the large cities. The factors for success was summarised as:

• cooperation between the University, industry and the municipality
• commercially viability
• support from the public
• collaboration with city councils
• government subsidy for capital investments, and finally
• few real enthusiasts who persevere

RES planning issues for the residential sector was presented by Remco Hoogma from Novem in the Netherlands. The presentation circled around the 5th Framework Programme project SiREN, in which several measures is used in four different cities in Europe - Lisbon, Spoleto, Leicester and Deventer - focussing on several RES technologies. The project consisted of a series of workshops and build on scenarios to help think about future RE strategies (implementation & dedicated development), to determine a preferred future (a "wish" vision), to reflect different visions of a future situation, and to demarcate the 'playing field' of the likely future. Scenarios were built from different perspectives and visions for the future were developed, to finally end in a commonly shared future vision. The key issue is to involve different actors early in the processes in order to "internalise" the decisions to be taken. Several examples of actions taken were given.

During the coffee break and until the end of the day, the chat was opened on internet and several questions were raised. More information about this is included below under the description of the panel discussion.

Before the panel discussion, Christoph Urbschat, Eclareon and Olivier Drücke, Door2energy, presented the solar thermal awareness campaign in Germany, the Solar na klar campaign. More or less all relevant market actors were involved in the campaign, including sponsoring from Ruhrgas AG. The intention was to raise of awareness and information of the German public about the use of solar thermal home systems, as well as transform high agreement of the general public with solar energy into concrete buying readiness. It was stressed that general information campaigns could only be successful if the actions were complemented at local and regional level. Solar energy is a life style issue and the campaign took part in all sorts of "fun" activities. Apart from information awareness campaigns, training of installers were a big issue. In this case we are talking about motivating the installers to participate. As a result of the campaign 7,800 installers registered, and 300,000 information brochures were distributed. Important issues raised were:

• Strong commitment (public-private partnerships)
• Networking of various actors from the society (networking)
• Spreading of innovative, distributed technology over existent markets (introduction)
• Urban areas comprising high communication structures (communication)

The example from Hannover was presented as a local part of the campaign. Experiences show that a minimum of three years communication is needed - staying ability is important.

In the panel discussion several issues were raised. These are summarised in bullet-point form below:

• CHP and certificate: new/more developments is needed, but possibilities exists.
• The life time of the effect of a campaign: awareness campaign needs money and a certain lifetime to have an effect. Discontinuity results in the need for re-establishing contacts etc.
• Get to the right person.... motivation and interest is very important.
• Virtual events important and time/cost saving, but needs a local/regional/national coordinator. The issue of funding and possibilities for CEEC was raised, but no definite answer given.
• The possibilities of replacing the subsidy systems with RECS was discussed, and concluded that this is not possible. The certificate is an information tool that could help develop the RES technologies that people want to have...
• Internalisation of externalities is the key issue - this was discussed and shown to be easier said than done. Everybody agreed it's a good idea, but as things doesn't evolve as easy as one would like, "old" measures are still needed.
• Language barriers were addressed. Sometimes sticking to the English language only, there might be barriers not included in today's meeting. In the light of Candidate countries joining the work, the language barrier should be addressed and something done to overcome these barriers.

Concluding remarks

• Importance of involvement of key stakeholders early in the planning (internalisation process).
• Awareness raising activities, like information, education and training is still very important.
• Financial issues are important, but not easily solved, especially not in an replicable way. Discussion on the financial issues need to be continued in the future ManagEnergy events, e.g. in the next Annual Conference.
• No single measure holds - combine ....Strategy development in broad projects seems to be the future, involving top-down as well as bottom-up approaches (relating to market actor involvement).
• Certificates could be an opportunity, but needs further development especially concerning CHP.
• Involvement of the Candidate countries is important, and will be even more important in the future.
• Virtual events important and time/cost saving, but needs a local/regional/national coordinator

Figures from the conference

Number of registered on virtual event: approximately 380
Number of people online on the web at the same time: 10-20
Number of participants at the workshop: 50
Number of participants for the panel discussion: 13

Participant list (10Kb)

This conference was broadcast live on the Internet and the video on demand recording is now available (click on the links in the proceedings below). The panel discussion incorporated questions via a live chat. A parallel local media conference was held by CODEMA in Dublin, Ireland. A report of their experiences is available.

This workshop on Renewable Energy is the second of a series of workshops organised by ManagEnergy within the process of facilitating global thinking on strategic, local issues. The aim of the workshop is to support local actors in their capacity building process and in their development of concrete replication strategies.

This workshop will present examples of good practice carried out at local and regional level by energy management agencies and discuss new ways of reaching the common goal of boosting renewable energy.

The sessions cover a wide range of topics including Green Certificates, Wind Energy, Solar, Biomass, Planning and Promotion, and the conference provides an excellent opportunity to share your experience and expertise with fellow professionals from across Europe.