RESGen RES Generation From Research Infrastructure to Sustainable Energy and Reduction of CO 2 Emissions

Transcription

1 RESGen RES Generation From Research Infrastructure to Sustainable Energy and Reduction of CO 2 Emissions Grant agreement No REPORT WP Number and title Task Number and title Deliverable Number and title Author and Partner Date and Version Dissemination Level WP2 Boosting the Regional Sustainable Energy Concept Task 2.5 Manual for strengthening regional sustainable energy generation D2.5 Manual for strengthening regional sustainable energy generation Tecnalia & OSTRO (all partners) PU (Public) 1

2 Abstract: This document presents the manual of RESGen process presenting the process and key lessons learnt by consortium. The target audience is other regions wanting to build their regional sustainable energy capacities. COPYRIGHT Copyright by the RESGen Consortium. The RESGen Consortium consists of the following institutions: Regional Council of Ostrobothnia (OSTRO) Coordinator Finland University of Vaasa Vaasa Energy Insitute (UWASA) Contractor Finland Oy Merinova Ab (MERINOVA) Contractor Finland Fundación Labein (TECNALIA-LAB) Contractor Spain Ente Vasco de la Energía (EVE) Contractor Spain Cluster de Energía del País Vasco (CEPV) Contractor Spain Northern-Hungarian Regional Innovation Agency (NORRIA) Contractor Hungary Károly Róbert College (KRF) Contractor Hungary Cornwall Development Company (CDC) Contractor United Kingdom This document may not be copied, reproduced, or modified in whole or in part for any purpose without written permission from the RESGen Consortium. In addition to such written permission to copy, reproduce, or modify this document in whole or part, an acknowledgement of the authors of the document and all applicable portions of the copyright notice must be clearly referenced. All rights reserved. 2

3 Letter from the coordinator Dear Colleagues, Energy is vital for our economies to work and develop. Thus secure energy supply is one of the priorities for our society. The landscape of energy policy has however drastically changed during the last years. The climate change and global efforts to reduce green house gas emission are turning the focus on sustainable energy. Sustainable energy is a concept that refers to increased utilization of energy from renewable sources and advancements in energy efficiency. Our project RESGen - RES Generation From Research Infrastructure to Sustainable Energy and Reduction of CO 2 Emissions aimed at creating grounds for improved regional sustainable energy management. Within this line the regions participating in RESGen project Ostrobothnia (Finland), Basque Country (Spain), North Hungary (Hungary) and Cornwall (UK) developed and implemented a process where the overall objective was to give boost to regional sustainable energy management. The RTD activities were set in the leading role and the innovating companies the ultimate objective of the project. The process consisted of three key steps analysis of regional capacities and capabilities, definition of RTD Roadmaps, and joining the forces of our regions in the Joint Action Plan. This process has permitted us to draw some important lessons that are presented by this manual. Firstly, the diversity of regions in many aspects from natural resources to regional authority level enriches but also challenges the process. One-size-fits-all type of tools for regional sustainable energy management does not exist. Rather, the process must be designed and implemented basing on the background and context of the region. This does not however mean that there would be opportunities for regions to learn from each other, but the learning should be more focused on the process and not on the results. That is why we have drafted this manual to present the key points of what we have learnt and considered useful instead of presenting a summary of what we have done in each region. Secondly, we have discovered that each region have tremendous potential in sustainable energy. The potential is however very well distributed meaning that just knowing more in-depth the four RESGen regions we can say that there are great synergies and complementarities between our regions. One region may have enormous renewable energy resources but little technological capacities to utilize them. Another one may have high potential in sustainable energy research but very scarce possibilities to use the know-how for the benefit of the region due practically non-existent natural resources for renewable energy. This notion leads us to the third important point: namely, collaboration between the European regions would benefit us all. In the spirit of smart specialisation, we should give up the idea of having it all within the borders of our region. Instead, focusing on what we are best or at least relatively strong at would drive us to the sustainable future much more efficiently and timely manner. 3

4 Lastly, we would like to point out the importance of trust. Without trust between the actors within a region and between regions the collaboration remains in very formal level. Once there is mutual confidence that the actions undertaken are for the common benefit, the collaboration really pays off. Trust is build between persons and fostered by time. We all can learn to open our minds to new ways of thinking. We believe that, the lessons learnt during this project are worth of dissemination to wider audience. Thus we have structured this manual from our experiences hopefully these guidelines are useful for your region in order to take the leap towards more sustainable future. In case you would like to know more about our experiences, please don t hesitate to contact us! Sincerely, on behalf of the whole RESGen consortium, Jerker Johnson Coordinator of RESGen project 4

5 Table of contents: 1 Introduction Fact sheet on RESGen regions and partners...7 Ostrobothnia Finland...7 North Hungary - Hungary...7 Basque Country Spain...8 Cornwall UK Setting the ground & key concepts...9 Why sustainable energy?...9 What is Sustainable Energy?...9 What are the benefits for my region?..10 How to move forward? RESGen path towards regional sustainable energy management...11 STEP 1: State of the play Where are we now?...11 STEP 3: Joint plans How can we get there together? Summing up

6 1 Introduction The purpose of this manual is to give the reader an overview of the RESGen process of regional sustainable energy management. The focus is on presenting the process instead of the results of the project. This manual first introduces the reader some facts of RESGen regions and partners that have build and followed the process. The idea of RESGen partnership is on regional triple-helix i.e. each region is presented by actors of public authority, research organisation and energy industry. Secondly, we introduce the key concepts and rationalise the importance of sustainable energy, from more general point of view but also from the point of view of the region. Then the RESGen path towards regional sustainable energy management is outlined with three key steps. The process started with analysis of the current situation by answering the question where we are now. Then it focused on the desired future and means to reach the vision by tackling the questions where do we want to be and how do we get there. Lastly the process set the joint plans with the guiding question: how do we get there together? Finally, we sum up the key messages that we consider useful guidelines for other regions in their endeavours towards more sustainable energy powered future. 6

7 2 Fact sheet on RESGen regions and partners The overall objective of RESGen project is to create realistic grounds and practical tools for developing regional energy self sufficiency, and potential innovative regional research-driven clusters across the EU. The project started in May 2009 and will continue until 30 th June You will find more detailed information about the project s objectives and the concept from the RESGen website ( RESGen is supported by the EU s Seventh Framework Programme (Regions of Knowledge). The regions participating the project are the following: least half of these R&D employees are working with Sustainable Energy. Partners: North Hungary - Hungary Ostrobothnia Finland Situated on the West Coast of Finland, Ostrobothnia is an international and bilingual region with a population of ca and the city of Vaasa (ca inhabitants) as its centre. The region consists mostly of rural areas with a network of small towns along the coast. The employed labour force can be divided into primary production 6.3% (3.7% average Finland), industry 32 % (23.9%) and services 60.7% (71.4%). Vaasa is the energy capital of Finland, and the energy cluster in the region is the largest in Scandinavia. It comprises over 100 enterprises, more than employees, and total net sales of ca 7,000M. The share of exports is 70%. Over 800 employees work in R&D in the enterprises and universities in the Vaasa region. At North Hungary has the population of 1.2 million people and is located in the northern part of Hungary. The region has an important ecological potential, 13 % of its territory is classified as national park which accounts for 22% of the nation s natural parks. Its economy was largely dominated by the heavy industry in the past, most of which was affected by the industrial restructuring of the early 1990s. Miskolc, which is the third most populous city of Hungary, is the most important educational and science centre of the region. The economy is dominated by the presence of SMEs who employ most of the labour force. The strengths of the region lie in its potential for natural sources, its cultural heritage and the centres for education and science. Regional weaknesses include the problem of unemployment which attained 10,6 % in The implication of the RESGen project is relevant in development of the 7

8 competitiveness based on local natural sources and establishing an attractive economic and residential environment. Partners: Cornwall UK Basque Country Spain Basque Country is a region located in northern Spain. While the region has had its own energy policies since early 1980 s, it is still quite dependent on energy imports, with a share of renewable energy sources in total energy demand of 5%. The gas and electrical networks are well developed in the territory. The economy is largely based on industry implicating a high share of industry and transport (~80%) in final energy consumption. The region s climate and geography conditions offer only limited possibilities to wider use of renewable energy sources, at least in very near future and for this reason energy efficiency is an important area of sustainable energy strategy in Basque Country. The region has a strong energy cluster and research organisations dedicated to the renewable energy sector and equipment for the power grid. Partners: Cornwall is a rural and maritime region situated at the far south-western peninsula of England sharing only one border with another English region (Devon) and surrounded by approximately 700km of coastline. Cornwall has a population of 532,200 (2010 figures) and an area of 3,564 km3. As a predominately rural region Cornwall contains a wide scatter of small towns and villages. Cornwall is not currently an energy producing region and as such has a high energy dependency, importing the vast majority of energy needs. The region s peripheral location means that security of energy supply is a particularly serious problem. However, the peripheral and geographical location of Cornwall also presents huge opportunities in an abundance of renewable energy resources, in particular wind, solar, geothermal and marine energy. Partner: 8

9 3 Setting the ground & key concepts Why sustainable energy? The global play ground of energy is changing. The scarcity and concentration of traditional energy resources combined with climate change mitigation has resulted in major changes in European energy policies. The European Council has set ambitious energy and climate change objectives for to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20%, to increase the share of renewable energy to 20%, and to make a 20% improvement in energy efficiency. EU energy and climate goals have been incorporated into the Europe 2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth adopt by the European Council in June 2010, and into its flagship initiative Resource efficient Europe. The achievement of the goals of the European energy and climate change policy necessitates the development and deployment of a diverse portfolio of low carbon energy technologies. This however requires a radical change in our energy infrastructures, research priorities, the consumption habits, and in policies and regulations supporting this development. European Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan) is a vehicle to accelerate the development and large scale deployment of low carbon technologies that draws upon the current R&D activities and achievements in Europe. It proposes a new innovation model based on a collective approach to research, development and demonstration planning and implementation with a focus on large scale programmes. Within this line of thought the RESGen project is aiming for supporting the development of regional research driven clusters in sustainable energy field. The overall objective of RESGen was to pave the way for more sustainable energy selfsufficient European regions. RESGen project promoted research and technology development as the main driver of setting the ground for improved sustainable energy management. The idea of triplehelix of actors was the starting point of our work. What is Sustainable Energy? Sustainable energy refers to energy production and use that meets the present energy needs without jeopardising the possibilities of future generations to meet their needs. Sustainable energy concept can be divided into: 1. Rational Use of Energy (RUE): energy efficiency, energy saving. 2. Renewable Energy Sources (RES): materials and other sources (biomass, wood, hydro, solar, geo, wind); can be collected from the own region. 3. Integration: there are a number of technologies for both RUE and RES, which all can be implemented alone as separate solutions or designed to be used as a combination. However, the integration of RUE and RES technologies (some examples of which are indicated in the Figure 1) will be the key to the creation of whole solutions: by different combinations of the available RUE and RES technologies and regional RES energy it is possible to outline alternative solutions with different degrees of energy self sufficiency. This concept can be applied to any target, whether it is a region or a separate building, or anything between these two extremes. It is then up to the decision making system to choose the alternative which 9

10 has the best possible outcome from a number of perspectives, defined by the decision makers. The figure below illustrates how the Sustainable Energy Concept can be composed in practice. The starting point will be to implement RUE technologies. Then, the energy which cannot be saved or upgraded and is needed will be produced by RES. RES, in turn, can consist of a number of raw materials or other sources, which are formed or can be collected from the same region where it is used. These sources can be utilised using several technical solutions. region's CO2 emission. It will boost the economy with direct business benefits, increasing the overall capacity of regional players in enhancing science and technology based development, but it also reflects to employment and other social aspects. Summarising, the vast money flow in the energy sector can circulate in the own region instead of being sent away, usually abroad. RES replaces the use of fossil fuels and, thus, reduces the direct emissions of CO2 and also other green house gases. What is even more important, especially the emission balances will improve remarkably. Figure 2: Sustainable energy in the context of regional economy Figure 1: The Sustainable Energy Concept What are the benefits for my region? The most important thing in RES Generation is to understand its vast potential to regional economy. The whole system consists and involves a number of actors and stakeholders. It also stimulates the regional economy by circulating all flows of money and employment inside the region, instead of sending it outside (Figure below). It is clear that a more efficient utilisation of the region's own renewable resources has a significant potential in both stimulating the regional economy and reducing the How to move forward? The following Chapter 3 describes the RESGen method towards improved regional sustainable energy innovation management. 10

11 4 RESGen path towards regional sustainable energy management STEP 1: State of the play Where are we now? Role of the actors of regional triple helix Holistic understanding of existing regional actors and their capabilities is the key starting point. In RESGen method for regional sustainable energy management the mapping of actors and their capacities plays an important role. The starting point of the analysis is so called regional triple helix formed by research organisations, regional companies and regional authorities. Analysis of the role and interlinks between the actors reveals the current state of play and possible gaps or overlaps between the actors. Thus the analysis of sustainable energy supply (research organisations), demand (regional firms) and existing policies supporting the sustainable energy RTD activities is the first step. Policies Industry Research Figure 3: Triple helix of actors. SWOT on regional energy and innovation profiles Next, the SWOT analysis is carried out in order to identify strengths and weaknesses as well as threats and opportunities of the different existing and potential RTD capacities, capabilities, policies and policy goals in each region. In RESGen-method, the SWOT is carried out in two themes: energy profile and sustainable energy innovation profile. The energy profile SWOT is focused on present situation (strengths and weaknesses) and future potential (opportunities and threats) of different energy sources. Innovation SWOT aims to analyse the regional innovation system and its future potential in related to sustainable energy. This method was thought to be quite insightful as the regional contexts vary quite remarkably. Comparing the regional sustainable energy potential to others - benchmarking The benchmarking aims to see the regional potential in relation to the others in order to reveal the real potential. The RESGen benchmarking compared the regional profiles to EU27 member states in the light of quantitative indicators in order to understand where the relative advantages of each region actually are. The dimensions aiming to draw a coherent picture of regional sustainable energy potential were (1) current use of energy, (2) renewable energy potential, (3) governance capacities, 11

12 (4) demand conditions, and (5) research and innovation potential (Figure 4). Each of these dimensions brings together a set of indicators with an aim to provide a balanced assessment of the sustainable energy potential. Figure 4: Dimensions of regional sustainable energy potential. 12

13 STEP 2: Future Where do we want to be and how do we get there? After the analysis of the current situation of the region, it is time to turn the focus into the future. RESGen method for setting future goals for sustainable energy RTD included an interactive Roadmap building process. Firstly, the regional actors agreed a common vision for sustainable energy RTD. Based on this vision the work continued by identifying relevant RTD projects ideas that would allow the vision to become a reality. The project ideas were short listed based on the scores that regional actors gave to each project idea. As a result, the most relevant and strong project ideas remained as a basis of structuring the fishbone structure of strategic areas and related projects guiding the region to future (Figure 5). Figure 5: Example fishbone structure. 13

14 STEP 3: Joint plans How can we get there together? Lastly, but most importantly, after profound analysis and planning the future individually at regional level it is the moment for enlargement of the perspective. No matter how excellent the regional capacities and capabilities are there are always benefits to gain by joining forces with others. Particularly, in the field of sustainable energy there are clear benefits of interregional collaboration whether it is in the level of public authorities, research institutions or companies. In terms of research, the Not invented here mentality should be replaced with proudly found elsewhere attitude, independently whether we are talking private firms or public research organisations. The efforts should be focused on the strengths (see also smart specialisation thinking) and the rest should be bought from the best. In many case of sustainable energy technologies there are some nontechnological challenges that can be barriers of wider scale commercialization. These challenges related to economic, regulatory, or institutional disadvantage relative to other forms of energy supply can be addressed more efficiently by joining forces. For example large scale research or demonstration projects would clearly be more economical done in cooperation (cost-sharing, synergies and complementarities). Our RESGen-method for building a joint action plan included a number of workshops and study visits where the findings of the regional analysis were made more concrete and the regions had the chance to know more in-depth the capacities and capabilities of other regions. The main lesson that we learnt during the process of agreeing on future collaboration plans was that it is not as easy at it seems. Successful collaborating at the end is about interaction of right people with coinciding incentives. Although we knew in which areas the collaboration areas may arise, putting the right people together was (and partly remained) a challenge. However, we believe that collaboration is something that you learn by doing in two ways. 14

15 5 Summing up The objective of this manual was to transfer the learning on regional sustainable energy innovation management that we gained during the RESGen project. Our objective was not to put up front the results of our work, but rather give an overview of what and how we have done it and what we can draw from the process. Hopefully this manual will give feed for thought to other regions faced with the challenge of sustainable energy. To sum up, we want to list the three key messages related to regional sustainable energy innovation management: 1. Know what there is. Without comprehensive understanding what are the regional capacities and capabilities it is hard to set any feasible goals. 2. Build your individual path. The regional RTD efforts should be focused on the areas of relative strengths and competitiveness. Finding the most suitable niche in global value chains is much more important than mastering it whole. 3. Keep on strengthening the communication and cooperation within regional actors. Sometimes, even seemingly well functioning innovation system is lacking the real constructive cooperation between the actors. Thus, interlinks and common understanding among the actors of regional triple helix are vital ingredients for obtaining the full potential of the regional capacities. 4. Be open. The world is out there and is moving in rapid pace. Proudly found elsewhere is at least a good complement, if not substitute on invented here strategy. The international networks and cooperation based on mutual trust and benefits is evermore important. 15