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228H ACE NWE Academy of Champions for Energy
Project priority: Strong and prosperous communities
Strategic Initiatives: unspecified
Start date: 01-04-2010
End date: 30-09-2015
Website: www.aceforenergy.eu
ERDF Grant: 2,367,681.29
Total eligible cost: 4,688,937.59
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Lead Partner contact person
Name: Edel Giltenane
Organisation: City of Dublin Energy Management Agency
Address: The Loft, 2 - 4 Crown Alley, Temple Bar Dublin 2 Dublin ,
Tel: +35317079818
Email: edel.giltenane@codema.ie
Country: Ireland
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Project partners
1. City of Dublin Energy Management Agency [IE]
2. Regen SW [UK]
3. Gemeente Apeldoorn [NL]
4. TMK - Kennis Centrum Energy (ex KHK) [BE]
5. Dublin City Council [IE]
6. Provincie Gelderland [NL]
7. Tipperary Energy Agency [IE]
8. Les 7 vents du Cotentin [FR]
9. United Sustainable Energy Agency [UK]
10. Zeeuws Duurzame Energie- en Klimaatfonds (Zeeuws Klimaatfonds) [NL]
11. City of Dublin Energy Management Agency [IE]
12. Gemeente Apeldoorn [NL]
13. Les 7 vents du Cotentin [FR]
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Summary description
The aim of the project is to promote and implement the uptake of sustainable energy in NWE. The project will achieve this through the development of a transnational academy, bringing together public and private agencies to champion sustainable energy.
The partnership brings together 4 distinct capability sets, coordinated through an innovative Academy of Champions for Energy:
1. ICT capabilities for energy smart cities, villages & regions
2. 100% energy self-sufficiency in a village
3. Community-based renewable energy technologies
4. New business models for sustainable energy
These combined capabilities will demonstrate and promote renewable energy among local authorities, business and citizen communities in a manner that would not happen without the Academy.
The Energy Champions are existing innovative energy agencies who successfully champion the cause of sustainable energy in their regions and have complementary transferable skills to share through the Academy.
The Academy will be a virtual entity that will endure at least until 2020 by maintaining a functioning Secretariat. The physical manifestation of the Academy will be demonstrated through the investment sites in IE, NL, and F.
The Academy will achieve:
* Enhanced level of innovation and competitiveness across NWE through increasing the combined capabilities of sustainable energy champions
* Greater awareness for renewable energy planning among local and regional authorities, elected Councillors and communities through a NWE communication strategy
* Vertical integration of regional sustainable energy planning with national and EU policies, involving businesses and grid operators as observers in the project
* Academy Awards competitions to network with additional energy champions and extend the Academy membership
* Contribution to the EU target of 20% renewable energy by 2020, through complementary and transferable flagship community projects, with replication through the Academy.
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Detailed description
The partners will work together through the Academy of Champions for Energy. An effective communication strategy will be developed to ensure a good co-operation between all partners.
A draft partnership agreement has been prepared and will be finalised and agreed by all partners at the beginning of the project. This partnership agreement will provide clarity to all partners of their duties, roles and responsibilities to the project coordinator, WP and action leaders and to each other. Each action has an action leader and each WP has a WP leader.
Two partner meetings will be held per year (8 no. during the projects lifetime) which will allow monitoring of the projects process. A project steering committee will be established comprising staff at a senior level within each partner and regular meetings will be held where any issues need to be resolved. A strong central project management team is in place with excellent EU and Interreg programme experience.
A shared online platform such as basecamp will ensure transparency and make available all project documents.
Regular email alerts by the project co-ordinator and WP leaders will ensure that the schedule is kept up to date. Conference calls and skype will also be availed of.
A staff exchange between partners will occur following an assessment of the partners' capabilities. A schedule will be drawn up and there will be the opportunity for each partner to send a member of staff to another partners' organisation to avail of training or to share their expertise.
Each of the investment projects requires the combined expertise of the partnership through sharing digital, community, renewable energy and business skills.
The energy champions will work together in the organisation and judgment of the Academy Awards competitions at both the primary qualifying stage and also in the overall final NWE awards ceremony.
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Objectives description
The aim of the project is to demonstrate and promote the increased use of renewable energy among local authorities, businesses and citizen communities in NWE. Four objectives will achieve this:
The first objective is to improve the co-operation and co-ordination of energy agency and other actors activities. Work Package 1 involves the creation of a new innovative Academy of Champions for Energy. This network brings together different groupings of sustainable energy champions with complementary areas of expertise.
The second objective is to strengthen the collective capabity of the Energy Champions. In WP2 the NWE Academy will build on the strengths and successes of the partners. The partners will bring complementary ideas to the project and will also gain expertise through their involvement in the project. This will be achieved through training activities, thematic conferences, staff exchange and mentoring.
The third objective is to showcase sustainable and innovative energy practices through demonstration projects. These demonstration projects will be developed in WP3 and will draw on the different capability sets of the project partners.
The final and fourth objective is to develop a NWE marketing plan to promote the increased uptake of RE. Lessons learned and feedback from the investments will provide invaluable support to the development of the marketing plan in WP4 which will involve an Academy Awards process in the partner regions that will lead to an overall high profile NWE Final Awards Ceremony.
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Activities description
Actions:
Creation of an innovative Academy of Champions for Energy (WP1)
* Constitution and management of the Academy
* Coordination and alignment of the project's strategic impact
Building collective capabilities of project partners (WP2)
* Mapping the partners' capabilities and networks
* Building the collective capabilities of the partnership
* Extending the transnational knowledge base
Implementation of renewable energy capabilities (WP3)
* Developing innovative business model for sustainable energy
* Demonstrating an energy smart city concept
* Demonstrating 100% energy self-sufficiency
* Demonstrating community-based renewable energy technologies
* Mapping energy, business and human resources
Market development plan for further uptake of renewable energy (WP4)
* Researching market development barriers
* Assessment of role of citizens
* Creating a marketing plan for renewable energies in NWE
* Academy Awards: primary competitions in each region
* Academy Awards: Final awards ceremony for NWE
Outputs:
* Academy of Champions as innovative networking structure
* Secretariat that will endure beyond life of project
* 6 meetings with Interreg Strategic Initiative clusters
* Report on capabilities and networks of energy champions
* 9 staff exchanges, mentoring and training of 25 staff
* 3 thematic seminars
* Business model for community energy
* Energy smart Citizens Plaza (IE)
* Energy-neutral Village (NL)
* Biogas Community Farm (F)
* Map of energy, business and human resources
* Report on replication potential for flagship demonstrations
* Report on renewable energy market barriers
* Guidelines on the role of citizens in planning energy infrastructure
* Marketing Plan for community renewable energy projects
* 6 Networking events and 6 new regional Energy Champions
* Academy Awards ceremony - Grand Finale and media cover
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Innovation
The creation of the NWE Academy for Energy Champions is innovative as it uniquely brings together different actors from the energy field who otherwise would not connect with each other. At present, local and regional authorities, universities, grid operators and energy companies are all working individually in developing strategies for renewable energy. There is much work going on but with little coordination or connectivity between these actors. The Academy will provide such coordination and will allow a better understanding of the capabilities and vertical and horizontal network links of the partners. It will allow exchange of know-how, training and investments. This coordination and alignment of sustainable energy actors will, in itself, create a competitive advantage for NWE through increasing the combined capabilities of sustainable energy champions.
The Academy's development of a NWE marketing plan to engage with local communities (local authorities, community organisations and businesses) in the promotion of community renewable energy projects is an innovative approach. This market plan will be developed with the knowledge gained during the project, through the lessons learnt during the implementation of the investments and the assessment of the market's technical and human barriers. It will assess the potential for replication of other community energy projects throughout NWE by mapping the renewable energy, business and human resources in the partner regions. Another innovative aspect of this approach will be the Academy Awards process. This will entail regional competitions leading up to a high profile NWE Academy Awards final that will capture the attention of media, citizens, politicians and local communities.
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Project specifics
At present, local and regional authorities, universities, grid operators and energy companies are all working individually in developing strategies for renewable energy. There is much work going on and there is no real need for more actors offering to show how it should be done. There is a need now, however, for regional coordination - of planning, vision, resource information, knowledge, training, ambition and targets. Coordination is required within the regions and coordination is required between the regions. The creation of the Academy of Champions for Energy (action 1) will therefore uniquely bring together a number of different strategic elements in a coordinated fashion. This coordination and alignment of sustainable energy actors will, in itself, create a competitive advantage for NWE.
The topics of cooperation will focus on building the collective NWE capability of the partnership. First, individual capabilities of the partners will be assessed using a common tool (action 3). Next, an inter-partner transfer of skills will be achieved through staff exchange and mentoring (action 4) and thematic seminars (action 5).
Cooperation of partners will also be required in implementing the 3 flagship demonstration projects (IE, NL, F) through sharing ICT, community, renewable energy and business expertise (WP3).
The potential for replication of the flagships within the partners' regions will be identified (action 10) and this will require further cooperation. The Academy Awards competitions will also require cooperation for organising and judging the competitions, at both the qualifying stage (action 14) and also in the overall NWE awards ceremony (action 15).
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Other EU projects involvement
The ACE project is related to the following INTERREG IVB funded projects; ACE will build on these other projects and, also, add value to them.
The Livinggreen.eu and REGAIN projects are concerned with retrofitting buildings to improve their energy efficiency. They will help to inform the Academy with regard to improving the energy performance of existing buildings in ACE's energy-neutral village.
C-Change aims to achieve a 'sea-change' in attitudes, behaviours and practical responses to the challenges that climate change raises for city regions and ACE will add value by further reducing CO2 emissions through replacing fossil fuels with carbon-free renewable energy.
The MUSIC project has the aim of reducing CO2 emissions in urban areas and includes as an output a GIS-based energy map that might be useful for ACE in mapping the regional energy, business and human resources and in developing replication potential for flagship demonstrations of renewable energy applications.
The aims of ACE are also well-aligned with the aims of the Strategic Initiative Clusters: CALGREST and ADAPT.
CALGREST has 5 projects on energy efficiency (including LIVINGGREEN and REGAIN). ADAPT is made up of 8 projects (including C-Change and MUSIC) concerned with adaptation to the spatial impacts of climate change. The ACE lead partner will seek to liaise with both clusters and there is provision for 6 such meetings in WP1.
ACE will be complementary to all the above-mentioned projects, in that ACE focuses primarily on renewable energy sources, whereas the other projects are mainly concerned with energy efficiency and/or climate change - although the 3 issues of energy efficiency, CO2 emissions and renewable energy are inextricably linked.
The ACE project will also seek to cooperate with 2 renewable energy projects that are conditionally approved and currently in the negotiation process: EnAlgae (energy from algae) and Arbor (energy from biomass).
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Previous EU projects involvement
The ACE project is related to the following INTERREG IVB funded projects; ACE will build on these other projects and, also, add value to them.
The Livinggreen.eu and REGAIN projects are concerned with retrofitting buildings to improve their energy efficiency. They will help to inform the Academy with regard to improving the energy performance of existing buildings in ACE's energy-neutral village.
C-Change aims to achieve a 'sea-change' in attitudes, behaviours and practical responses to the challenges that climate change raises for city regions and ACE will add value by further reducing CO2 emissions through replacing fossil fuels with carbon-free renewable energy.
The MUSIC project has the aim of reducing CO2 emissions in urban areas and includes as an output a GIS-based energy map that might be useful for ACE in mapping the regional energy, business and human resources and in developing replication potential for flagship demonstrations of renewable energy applications.
The aims of ACE are also well-aligned with the aims of the Strategic Initiative Clusters: CALGREST and ADAPT.
CALGREST has 5 projects on energy efficiency (including LIVINGGREEN and REGAIN). ADAPT is made up of 8 projects (including C-Change and MUSIC) concerned with adaptation to the spatial impacts of climate change. The ACE lead partner will seek to liaise with both clusters and there is provision for 6 such meetings in WP1.
ACE will be complementary to all the above-mentioned projects, in that ACE focuses primarily on renewable energy sources, whereas the other projects are mainly concerned with energy efficiency and/or climate change - although the 3 issues of energy efficiency, CO2 emissions and renewable energy are inextricably linked.
The ACE project will also seek to cooperate with 2 renewable energy projects that are conditionally approved and currently in the negotiation process: EnAlgae (energy from algae) and Arbor (energy from biomass).
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