CTO Assessment - European Commission

place where the actual realization of
the project occurs. For this, the ground
needs to be prepared by creating a
positive perception of RES and of a
particular project, while addressing
the underlying motivations of the action
such as protection of the environment,
security of supply and mostly
also the positive impact on
employment for the region.
To achieve the broadest spread of
awareness, all groups or individuals,
who might have an impact on renewable
energy projects currently or in
the future, should be targeted through
a variety of awareness strategies.
Some of the most often used actions
are as follows:
The future generation - the school
children - should be at the centre
of awareness building activities.
The local press should be involved
at an early stage. In general local
press relies on information from
their surroundings. Therefore a
standard press release including information
about the CTO and its underlying
motivations could be
drafted and distributed by the local
project partner. The project
partner should add project specific
information.
The local players responsible for the
project realization should inform
the local politicians as well as the
national and European politicians
of their constituency of the project
in order to build the bridge from
the local level to the national and
European level in the political sector
and to further generate interest
in renewable energy sources.
Furthermore, other local players such
as Municipalities, NGO’s, political
parties, and citizens should be addressed
to ensure a maximum of
agreement and awareness building.
Replication potential
Replication is an essential facilitating
mechanism to spread the positive
information about local RES projects,
contributing to raise awareness. One
of the biggest contributions of CTO to
the promotion of renewables in Europe
has precisely been the huge potential
of replication of the initiatives
and projects launched, as well as the
development of appropriate instruments
to guarantee dissemination
through specialised networks or centres.
At this level, CTO has been one
of the best showcases to promote this
dimension.
With regard to replication, the most
showy and effective cases have been
those involving islands, where it was
clearly shown that islands such as
Samsø, Pellworm or Götland, which
developed a considerable activity in
their environment, in parallel to the
development of each initiative, leading
to an extensive reply through replication
with similar projects. Their
effect was so important that it went
beyond the European borders. The
projects of Samsø and Götland have
been looked up by and replicated in
very far regions such as Japan, Australia,
and Pacific Ocean islands. A
similar effect was produced by the El
Hierro 100% RES initiative, whose
wind-hydropower project has already
started being replicated on Crete and
Madeira.
Some indicators of the important replication
potential of CTO initiatives
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Achievements and lessons