Promoting renewable energies - RETS Project

The implementation of a renewable energy project is
complex, requiring key skills, and above all high levels of
finance, negotiation of planning systems and the political
process. It therefore takes time to develop such an
investment and as a consequence the 36 month duration
of RETS is too short to see renewable energy
infrastructure projects deployed in this timescale.
Renewable energy types of projects are developed on a
more medium to long term timescale.
Extended networks in renewable
energies
Another area of cooperation that has been very
successful within the RETS project is that of collaboration
with other projects and networks.
Successful cooperation has been developed with the
INTERREG IVC project RENREN (Renewable Energy
Regions Network www.renren-project.eu) managed by
the Schleswig-Holstein regional government. RENREN
is particularly complimentary to the RETS approach
focusing on policy measures at the regional level.
difficulties exporting their experiences to their
Slovenian neighbours.
The Northern Portuguese and Spanish border
zone (Beira Interior Norte – Salamanca). The
RETS partner Pinhel is part of a mixed publicprivate
association working in the area of energy
optimisation.
The Danish German Region. Study visits of good
practices collected through the INTERREG IVA
Furgy project, where the level of cooperation and
exchange is optimal.
All this work in the cross-border domain requires further
support and stimulation. In particular, it reveals the
problem of feed in tariffs, normally linked to national
legislation, which is problematic in a cross-border
territory.
As a result of this work in extending the RETS network,
RETS, RENREN and IMEDER are planning a joint
seminar in November 2012 allowing their different
members to discover, exchange, and build on
renewable energy experiences and practices. It is
hoped through this networking event, new projects and
initiatives can be born.
Inter-regional cross-border approach
An interesting outcome of the project that was not
originally planned is the reinforcement of an inter-regional
cross-border approach. Due to the geographic situation
of some of the partners in the consortium, and illustrated
through the study visits, the implementation of RES in
four cross-border zones has been investigated.
The French-German Upper Rhine area. Strategic
work on energy planning in a cross-border zone
has been instigated by PAMINA and the French
national organisation the MOT (Mission
Opérationnelle Transfrontalière). The RETS
project was asked to share and exchange good
practices and planning advice resulting from the
project.
The Austrian – Slovenian region. The town of
Gussing has established good practices in
sustainability and renewables, however there are
RETS project word cloud
Web 2.0 collaborative tools
From the beginning of the project, a project wiki was
developed both as a platform for the project management
and a canvas for joint project work. While some of the
partners had some experience in the use of web 2.0
tools, many including most of the local authorities had
relatively little. Step by step through the project they
gained in skills and confidence contributing to all the
collaborative project work.
Through the different project activities the wiki now
contains an immense tool box of information and raw
RETS Compendium – © 2012 RETS Consortium
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