Capacity Building of Actors

Background

The transition towards a decarbonized and largely renewables based power sector, including its correlating infrastructure developments, calls for a new level of cooperation and contribution from societal actors across Europe.

Professionals working on the whole range of the renewable energies sector must be enabled to exchange ideas, results of scientific or political work. Civil society, local communities, NGOs are essential to build up public support which is considered to be one of the most important issues in enabling grid expansion, large-scale renewables projects as well as the role-out of decentralized renewables.

The capacity of these groups to engage in dialogue on an equal footing with Transmission System Operators (TSOs) is a precondition for participation in grid-related discussions. Vice versa, companies engaged in the energy transition often find themselves in an unusual role of having to cooperate with civil groups and NGOs when it comes to investment projects to expand the grid. For NGOs, it is often a new experience to work with different types of business: albeit independently and critically, but ultimately towards the same end - to make their own vision of a renewables-based Europe 2050 real.

Learning, coordinating and trust-building work with unusual partners is becoming more and more relevant.

SEFEP's activities

Activities include:

➢  Renewables Connect: This website will provide an online directory and platform for European professionals working on renewable energies, involving key individuals from across a wide-spread of actor groups, topics, and countries. This activity is under development

➢  Grid Master Class: Facing climate change and energy security, the EU and its member states have decided to fully decarbonise their power system by rapidly increasing renewable energies. In the electricity sector, a big challenge is to adapt the power grid in time. Besides regulatory barriers, public opposition against new transmission lines contribute to very long and conflict-ridden planning procedures. While increased participation is now being introduced and tested in the planning procedures, distrust between citizens and grid developers is casting a shadow on these efforts. Knowledge gaps and lack of mutual understanding make it difficult to find a common ground. The objective of the Grid Master Class is to build the capacity of stakeholders to enable a widely supported grid development, in line with today’s possibilities and expectations.

➢  Direct support to enable stakeholder involvement at national and European level, e.g. capacity building support for key NGOs who lead grid-related dialogues, or direct support for NGO engagement in the Renewable Grid Initiative.