Newsletter RETS

Opinion pieceADEC, has been an actor in local development in Alsace for more than 15 years, and clearly wishes to get involved in the RETS project to both support and reinforce existing synergies on the local and European level.Sharing experiences and collaborative multicultural projects give an important boost to our territories, especially rural ones. They allow us to move forward faster and benefit from existing European knowledge and know-how.It has been proven to us over the years: participating in European projects gives a competitive advantage, and allows even small organisations to become leaders with clear uncontested foresight in the area of Information Technology and sustainable development.Catherine LEDIG, Director of ADEC and Associate

professor, Faculty of Law, University of Strasbourg

Good practice exchangeStudy visit, 27th- 28th April 2010: “Renew-able Energies in Freiburg and North Alsace

As part of the project, the RETS team will come together to share and exchange good practices on renewables in six different re-gions.The first study visit “Renewable Energies in Freiburg and North Alsace” con-sisted of a two day visit to the cross-border Upper Rhine region, and made it possible to share some remarkable and pioneering practices in Germany and France.The first day visit was dedicated to the city of Freiburg (Baden-Würtemberg, Germany) on 27th April 2010 and included a guided tour of the Vauban quarter, the visit of the 1st four-storey passive house in Vauban, a reception with the town in the historic town hall of Freiburg and a presentation of the Solar Info Center.

The Regional Initiative Project “RETS: Renewable Energies Transfer System”, financed by the INTERREG IVC programme, was launched with a European conference held on 3rd February 2010 in the town of Serta, Portugal.

The aim of the project is to improve the knowledge and competencies of local and regional policymakers in renewable energy systems, and by doing so facilitate the deployment of effective renewable energies policies at local andregional level.

The conference, promoted by Sertã Municipality, had as key speakers, the Portuguese Secretary of State for Energy and Innovation José Carlos das Dores Zorrinho, the Civil Governor of the District of Castelo Branco Maria A. Lima Rodrigues Serrasqueiro, as well as, representatives from the twelve project partners.

Attended by over 140 local authority representatives, the participants were able to gain a broad perspective of renewable energy policies on a European and local level, through case studies and best practices shown by the speakers.

Following the conference the project partners came together in internal meetings and workshops to set-up and plan the project activities for the coming year.

RETS project news

Renewables UpdateNewsletter - 01| 2010 | November

www.rets-project.euwww.rets-community.eu

1 - Intervention of the Mayor of Sertã at the launch conference.2 - RETS project launch conference.3 - Closure of the international launch conference of the RETS project in Sertã in presence ofthe Secretary of State for Energy and Innovation, Carlos Zorrinho.4 - The Mayor of Serta presents Jon Fairburn, Staffordshire University with the Coat of Arms.

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Located in eastern France, the Weinbourg Solar Farm was initially a family farm with two main activities: big crop farming (GAEC du Comté de Hanau) and out-door laying hens (SARL du Comté de Hanau). In 2008 they switched to a big dou-ble energy project: a 4.5 MW photovoltaic plant and a factory for the transforma-tion of agricultural and forest biomass. With five sheds covered by 36,000 square meters of silicon panels, the site of Weinbourg is now the largest integrated pho-tovoltaic roof by a farmer and can generate 4.5 megawatts (MW) of electricity, enough to power 4,000 homes. Each panel is over 200 metres long.( More information on http://www.hanau-energies.fr/ )

A passivehouse is an extreme energy-saving house, even when compared to new buildings. The first passivehouse as a multifamily residence came into being in 1999, in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. In “Passivhaus Wohnen & Arbeiten”, it is proven that 79% primary energy saving (including electrical power) is possible, without sacrificing comfort, for only 7% extra cost than the cost of a conventional new building. The gain from saved energy is able to pay for the 7% extra cost in 10 to 20 years. ( More information on http://www.passivhaus-vauban.de/ )

The Solar Info Center is a specialised business centre and incubator that brings together architects, planners, energy consultants, engineering offices, project developers, Information Technology (IT) and software companies, press- and marketing experts, specialist legal staff, financial service pro-viders and business consultants – all intimately familiar with the energy sector and all under one roof. In this way, they benefit from the synergy effect of this center of competence with its focus on innovation and growth. ( More information on http://www.solar-info-center.de/ )

The RETS team outside the ADEC site in La

Walck, North Alsace. >

Vauban quarter, Freiburg

Solar Info Center, Freiburg

Hanau Energies, Solar Farm, Weinbourg: “From Agriculture to energiculture”

The visit to North Alsace (Weinbourg and Soultz-sous-foret, France) on 28th April 2010 involved a seminar of local experiences in Northern Alsace and a visit of Hanau enérgies, Wein-bourg and a visit of the deep geother-mal site Soultz.


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“Heat Mining” European Economic Interest Group (E.E.I.G.), geothermal technology, Soultz-sous-Forêts

Upcoming events

In 1996, a European Economic Interest Group (E.E.I.G.) called “Heat Mining” was set up, bringing together big international players in the energy industry including Electricité de France, Electricité de Strasbourg, and Pfalzwerke (Germany). The aim of this group was firstly to test the heat extraction process from deep hot rock (5 km deep) for use in commercial electricity production and secondly to be able to produce around 6 MW of electricity by 2006. Today the Soultz-sous-Forêts electric plant is in service, and produces 1.5 MW (net). This is the most advanced research programme on geothermal energy in the world. ( More information on http://www.geothermie-soultz.fr )

Internal project events2nd RETS project study visit from 13th to 15th July 2010 to West Wales, UK2nd Project Steering Committee Meeting, 13th October 2010, Varese, Italy - Interregional seminar Varese, Italy: module 1: 9th July 2010, module 2 & 3: 13th & 14th October 2010

ProjectsIn each newsletter issue, the RETS project team will suggest links to other European and national funded projects dealing with similar themes. In this issue, RETS promotes five sister INTERREG IVC projects:

CLIMACT Regions for Climate Protection: toward Governance from Knowledge to Action. The project objective is to improve the capacity of Regions to build and apply greenhouse gases reduction policies in order to contribute to climate protection.http://www.fedarene.org/

LoCaRe - Low Carbon Economy RegionsLoCaRe is a mini-programme in which Regions and Municipalities connect and work closely together to integrate issues related to transitions in the field of energy reduction (renewable energy, trnasportation systems, etc) to more sustainable regional policies and local implementationhttp://www.locareproject.eu

MORE4NRG - Exchanging best practices on sustainable energy policiesThe project aims to strengthen the delivery of regional strategies for renewable energy sources and energy efficiency by exchanging best prac-tices on sustainable energy policies and jointly developing an integrated monitoring tool for measuring the effect of regional sustainable energy strategies. http://www.more4nrg.eu

RENREN - Renewable Energy Regions NetworkThe overall objective is to improve regional policies so that existing regional frameworks are optimised to foster and strengthen renewable en-ergy sources. http://www.renren-project.eu

The international nature of the supply chain

for renewable energy is illustrated by some of

the machinery being from Converteam.

Go to_


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W2E - Waste to EnergyThe project aims to exchange knowledge and good practices about regional policies for sustainable waste management by changing the percep-tion of waste as a potential resource, and to increase energy recovery from waste.

Technews

RES news

Photovoltaic database for policy decision-makers

RES champions league winners 2010

Legal news

Local authority news

New Research project to integrate renewables into the Electricity grid

Mini Solar Power Systems for homes and workplacesEU-funded researchers have embarked on a project to develop mini solar power systems that will allow homes and workplaces alike to generate their own electricity and meet their heating and cooling requirements. Called DIGESPO (‘Distributed CHP [combined heat and power] generation from small size concentrated solar power’), the 3-year project has been allocated EUR 3.2 million in funding under the Energy Theme of the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). Its aim is to create a prototype system capable of converting 60% to 70% of harnessed solar radiation into heat and electricity. http://www.digespo.eu/

The European Union has launched the European research project Twenties 1* which aims at supporting the integration of renewable energies (EnR), in particular wind, to the European electricity grid before 2020, according to the objectives of the Climate-Energy Package and the 3x20 objectives. The 3 year Twenties 1 project gathers 26 partners (electricity grid transporters, producers of electricity, institutions) coming from 10 Member States (France, Spain, Denmark, The Netherlands, Norway, Germany, Italy, Belgium, United Kingdom, Ireland). The project structured around 6 domains will attempt to identify and overcome the obstacles of the massive integration of On and Off-shore wind turbines, intermittant by their nature, into the European Electricity Network.*Transmission system operation with large penetration of Wind and other renewable Electricity sources in Networks by means of innovative Tools and Integrated

Energy Solutions.

Launched in July, 2009, the European PV Legal project has for objective to bring down the administrative barriers of the photovoltaic ( PV) market, and therefore to reduce the delay of connection of PV installations to the electricity grid. 12 EU Member States are concerned by this project: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Netherlands and the United Kingdom.This new tool aims to supply market actors and policy decision-makers with a systematic analysis of barriers and problems concerning grid con-nection. http://www.pvlegal.eu/

At a ceremony on 19th May in Dunkerque, during the 6th European conference of sustainable cities and towns, the first season of the RES Cham-pions League gathered 2 600 European local authorities and 50 millions inhabitants from seven countries: Germany, Bulgaria, France, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Czech republic.

Prato-allo-Stelvio (Italy) won the Gold medal in the general ranking. This town of 3200 inhabitants distinguishes itself not only thanks to the mix of renewable energies, made of 6 different technologies, but also thanks to the local distribution network run by a local cooperative that makes the town an almost autonomous municipality in terms of energy production and distribution. The German cities of Neckarsulm and Ulm took the Gold medals respectively in the divisions “20,000 to 100,000 inhabitants” and “more than 100,000 inhabitants”, and the small town of Nowa Deba created the surprise by giving the last Gold medal (division “5,000 to 20,000 inhabitants) to Poland.The European champions have been selected by a Jury composed of partners of the action (energy experts, environmental protection NGOs, mu-nicipalities network, specialised journalists) on the ground of quantitative criteria (installed power in renewable energy) and qualitative criteria (personal implication of elected persons, territorial dynamic). New countries can join the European action and more information can be found at:http://www.res-league.eu/


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RETS in EuropeRETS dissemination

RETSQuiz

13-17th June 2010: presentation of RETS at the 10th Regional Energy Forum of the World Energy CouncilFOREN 2010, Neptun-Olimp, RomaniaThe RETS Project was presented during the Poster Section of FOREN 2010. It was also been dissem-inated during conferences, round tables and workshops dedicated to renewable energy sources.

24-25th June 2010: RETS held a project stand at the Energivie Event and ILETE project final conference held in Strasbourg, FranceThe RETS project was present within a Forum of European projects linked to themes of Energy and Energy Efficiency at the final conference of the Intelligent Energy Europe project ILETE. More than 20 good contacts were made during the two day exhibition which will help to further disseminate the RETS activities over the next 3 years.

1) Renewable sources of energy: * are the only forms of energy used in the UK today * are inexhaustible * increase reliance on fossil fuel imports * produce damaging greenhouse gases

2) Which of the following surface arrangements is likely to capture the most solar energy: * a horizontal surface * a vertical surface * a northerly facing fixed surface that is perpendicular to the incoming solar irradiance * a surface that tracks the sun around the sky

3) Ground source heat pump systems: * always require a nearby source of water * function best when the heating demand temperature is below 60oC * always require very large areas around a building * are most economically attractive in regions of high electricity prices

4) Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems : * convert light into heat for heating and hot water * operate at rated full (peak) power throughout the year * convert light into electricity * are insensitive to their orientation and inclination

5) Wood chip biomass boilers: * have automated fuel feed systems * need to be lit every day * can burn logs * are manually loadedAnswers at the end


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How much do you know about renewable energy. Check out your knowledge with the RETS multiple choice quiz:

Contact:More information about the project and its activities can be found at:http://www.rets-project.euhttp://www.rets-community.eu

Project coordinatorADEC (Association pour le dévelopment des Entreprises et ces Compétences)Site ADEC, 37, rue d’Engwiller, 67350 La Walck, FranceTelephone: +33-3 69 20 29 10 | Fax: +33-3 69 20 29 19http://www.adec.fr

Project coordinator:Catherine Ledig, Director ADEC & Associate professor, Faculty of Law,University of Strasbourg - [email protected] manager:Alison Garnier-Rivers - [email protected]

ContributorsCatherine LEDIG (ADEC)Alison GARNIER-RIVERS (ADEC)Jon FAIRBURN (IESR, Staffordshire University)Viktoria BRAUN (IHK Zetis GmbH)Paulo Farinha Luís (Município da Sertã)

Photo credits ©RETS consortium

Answers:1) are inexhaustible 2) a surface that tracks the sun around the sky 3) function best when the heating demand temperature is below 60oC. 4) convert light into electricity 5) have automated fuel feed systems.


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