Promoting renewable energies - RETS Project

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In all countries national policy is set by the national government, but there is a wide variety in how this can be implemented at the local level. Some countries allow far greater flexibility in terms of investment and action by their local authorities which have allowed long term strategies to be deployed. This approach is far more likely to be successful than ad-hoc sporadic projects. Interventions at a local level for renewable energy can take several forms, but some have proved much more common than others. In many cases local authorities have used several of the approaches below and there is often some overlap between these approaches. Partnership working is very common especially with trade organisations, chambers of commerce, local energy charities and universities. Local authorities making use of renewable energy and energy efficiency techniques in their own buildings. The most common intervention at a local level has been local authorities making use of renewable energy and energy efficiency techniques in their own buildings (e.g. town halls, swimming pools, schools, kindergartens) or through the development of new exemplar buildings. These are often done to demonstrate leadership and legitimacy of renewable energy at the local level as well as providing a showcase for the new technologies. Such actions by the public sector are often necessary in the early stages of new technologies and building techniques due to early high costs. In some countries the provision of social/rented housing by local authorities allows neighbourhood level schemes such as widespread installation of PV or district heating. Taking a neighbourhood approach can be a far more cost-effective means of delivering renewable energy/energy efficiency as opposed to tackling individual houses due to the economies of scale. Furthermore, such work can be tied to a general upgrading of the housing stock. This approach may include the use of intermediate labour markets comprising of training up long term of youth employed to carry out part of the work, thus improving their skills, creating green jobs and keeping the money in the local economy. By specifying such mechanisms in the initial tender of work local authorities can lever in additional benefits for their local economy. The RETS website provides full examples of these schemes, in this chapter we provide some concise examples for: a. A municipal swimming pool in Serta, Portugal. b. A scheme for social housing in Kirklees, UK. c. A low impact nursery building in Cuveglio, Italy. Community owned energy schemes The emergence of community owned energy schemes, often based on an income stream produced by feed in tariffs has occurred in pioneering countries such as Germany. There are far fewer of these types of intervention, but they are growing in number. One problem such large schemes have faced is unexpected changes to the funding regimes of feed in tariffs especially with regards to the cuts that have affected PV technology. The lack of a stable feed in tariff policy and the propensity for politicians to unexpectedly cut established tariffs has done much to undermine investor confidence in such schemes. The Zero Emission Village in Weilerbach in Germany is the featured example. Local authority planning and procurement policies Local authority planning and procurement policies that support renewable energy and the low carbon agenda. Most local authorities will have responsibility for creating local planning documents with direction from national policy. Such plans almost always have a spatial dimension in terms of zoning or policy with regards to renewable technologies. Procurement policy can be used to source goods and services by emphasising the lower carbon footprint of goods and services sourced from the local area. Examples include a. Association of Municipalities of Cove ad Beira, with Pinhel, Portugal. b. Morbach Energy Landscape in Rhineland- Palatinate, Germany. 38 RETS Compendium – © 2012 RETS Consortium
c. The Green-Net project of Sittard- Geleen, Netherlands Private sector support schemes Publicly funded schemes to assist and develop the private sector take many forms and usually include a range of possible assistance for the firms. Such schemes are important to move the technologies and practices closer to market and to build overall confidence. The ultimate aim should be a flourishing private sector providing the services at a local level. Interventions include: cheap of free feasibility studies; soft loans or grants for installation; development of local supply chains; assistance with market research; new technology development; subsidised internships; knowledge transfer between universities and businesses (e.g. innovation vouchers); the use of cluster policy. More recently within business and innovation support there has been a movement away from supply led strategies (tightly defined by the programme managers allowable activities) to demand led strategies (more flexible programmes which support what the company has identified as needing). RETS project examples of private sector support schemes include: a. Pole of competitiveness Derbi, Languedoc Roussillon, France. b. The New Energy Sources Entrepreneurs’ Association - SunE, Bucharest-Ilfov, Romania. would seem to be desirable but there are few such courses in general. Training can cover all levels of skills and training such as: training people to install and maintain renewable technologies; to accredit existing skilled trades people; to provide confidence to consumers through certification schemes; the provision of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in technical and research orientated renewable energy at local universities; community organisations providing information on energy efficiency and grants. RETS project examples include a. Climate change Wales project to assist teachers and students in Wales. b. A Masters programme in “Management and Law in Renewable Energies and Sustainable Development” run at Strasbourg University, France. c. Professional training provided by Coprotec in France. In Chapter 5 we provide pen portraits of some for the best practices at the local level that have been gathered by the partners on the project. Full details of all practices are available on the main project website http://www.rets-project.eu The practices can be broadly divided into two main ways: By six different types of technology (biomass, waste, wind, hydro, geo, solar). By five different types of intervention (detailed above). Training, accreditation and education schemes. These are far less common as an intervention measure at a local authority level and are often carried out on the basis of one off projects rather than as part of a sustained training programme. Universities do provide both engineering courses as well as energy policy type courses. The development of hybrid postgraduate courses covering aspects of both engineering and policy RETS Compendium – © 2012 RETS Consortium 39
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Page 26 and 27: Overview Over the last 20 years the
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Promoting renewable energies - RETS Project

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