I've just returned from a meeting in Sertã, Portugal, that launched a new and ambitious 3 year programme called RETS.

RETS is based on knowledge sharing and exchange of good and best practice in renewable energy technologies in small administrative regions. It will use current web-based technology to co-ordinate the 12 partners from 9 countries, and will include study tours and seminars in most of the regions.

The project partners are from France, Germany, Holland, Portugal, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia and the UK. They include expert organisations like us, a university and municipal authorities.

This is a significant opportunity for us at the ECO Centre. We will be promoting the project to all our own local authority partners and to others in Wales. We will be running events and seminars that promote the good practice on display in other European regions and we will be playing host to a major event in July 2010.

Here's the official summary:

RETS project summary

The ”RETS: Renewable Energies Transfer System” project has grown up out of a local experience of economic development through renewable energies (RES) in Northern Alsace (France).

The project aims to tackle the challenges of renewable energies for local and regional authorities (and in particular those with less than 25,000 inhabitants) in association with the expertise of existing competency centres that produce research and provide services on RES. These small sized authorities have to combat issues linked to their territorial competitiveness and access to project management skills for the implementation of complex projects (energy–mix).

The main objective of RETS is to improve the knowledge and competencies of local and regional policymakers (decision makers, civil servants …) in renewable energies, so as to facilitate the deployment of coherent and value added strategic renewable energies policies. This will be realised through the creation of a European community for local authorities on RES, comprised of two key elements: physical tools for meeting and exchanging viewpoints and a virtual platform for collaborative exchange and transfer of good practice through an innovative online approach.

The RETS partnership counts 12 partners from 9 EU Member States: France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, UK, the Netherlands, Romania, and Slovenia. It has been developed with the idea of obtaining partners with different types and levels of experiences in the deployment of RES and sustainable management. The panel contains local authorities, universities, energy agencies and associations, more or less advanced in their policy and experiences.

The core RETS activities concern the creation of simple usable tools for local authorities in order to help them make informed choices for the implementation of the right renewable energy strategy within their territories:

- Collection and analysis of regional RES initiatives and production of a good practice guidebook (45 good practices collected and 20 transferred)

- Study visits (6) to exchange on ideas and practices between network members

- Tailored RES seminars for local authorities (10 seminars) to transfer knowledge, good practices and stimulate policy implementation

- Creation of an online RES community bringing together local authorities and RES experts on a collaborative tool, allowing them to find, exchange, discuss and transfer information on RES in an innovative way (publication of 25 articles on the web portal).

- Dissemination of the results using both traditional (3 conferences, paper publications (leaflet, brochure), 10 newsletters, press releases) and new forms of communication (website, online collaborative tool).

The immediate project result is expected within the members of the consortium and their regional local authority network contacts. RETS will then rapidly have a wider reach through the diffusion of its good practices and knowledge via the RETS web portal and guidebook.

Study visit to West Wales

The study visit to West Wales took place on July 14th and 15th 2010. Its aim was to demonstrate innovation in renewable energy and good energy efficient practices. Every venue was an exemplar energy efficient building, with two of them being certified as BREEAM Excellent.

 

July 14th

We undertook a visit to Pembroke Dock and the Quiet Revolution wind turbine factory (http://www.quietrevolution.com/).

QRM have designed and developed a turbine for use in urban environments.

In the afternoon, RETS partners visited the Energy Technium in Pembroke Dock and heard about the background it its development and its main purpose.

We were given a tour of the building and heard about the link with Swansea University's Climate Research Centre.

We then heard from Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority (PCNPA) about planning policy in the Park - the challenges and opportunities.

After the Technium, RETS partners were given a civic reception by the Chairman and Vice Chairman of Pembrokeshire County Council - the local statutory authority.

July 15th

This event took place at the Oriel y Parc gallery (http://www.orielyparc.co.uk/) and information centre in St. David's

This is a new and sustainably built building that meets BREEAM EXCELLENT standards of design, materials use and energy (http://www.breeam.org/).

We heard from Tidal Energy Ltd about the Deltastream tidal energy device (http://www.tidalenergyltd.com/index.htm). And we heard from Iain Russell of Wave Dragon about wave energy technology (http://www.wavedragon.net/).

We then went to the Small World Theatre in Cardigan

Peter Harper from the Centre for Alternative Technology (http://www.cat.org.uk/) presented on the newly released report ZCB2030(http://www.zerocarbonbritain.com/).