Samsø is a 112 square kilometers island off the east coast of Denmark. Home to 4,300 residents, the island relies on renewable energy for 100% of its needs.  The island’s proposal won a Danish government competition and within ten years the community proved it could live entirely off renewable energy.

Objectives and target audience

In the late nineteen-nineties, the island’s inhabitants had a conventional attitude toward energy.  Most Samsingers heated their houses with oil, which was brought in on tankers. They used electricity imported from the mainland via cable, much of which was generated by burning coal. As a result, each Samsinger put into the atmosphere, on average, nearly eleven tons of carbon dioxide annually.
Then, quite deliberately, the residents of the island set about changing this. They formed energy coöperatives and organized seminars on wind power. They removed their furnaces and replaced them with heat pumps. By 2001, fossil-fuel use on Samsø had been cut in half. By 2003, instead of importing electricity, the island was exporting it, and by 2005 it was producing from renewable sources more energy than it was using.

Financial Resources and Partners involved

Financial Resources: without any direct subsidy from the Danish government, the islanders built a 50 million Euro energy system.  80% the capital was raised from local investors, relying only on Danish laws and regulations.
In the four years of construction, the total investment in RES and RUE has been 49 mill. €, 41 mill. € coming from local firms, private households and the municipality
Until 2002, a national program subsidised the installation of biomass heating, solar collectors and heat pump systems, an incentive that convinced many homeowners to replace their oil furnaces and electric panel heaters.
Partners Involved: Samso Energy Agency coordinated the RE development in cooperation with Samso Trade Organisation, Samso Farmers Organisation and Samso Municipality.

Process

The project began in 1998.
Eleven 1 MW wind turbines were erected in 1999-2000 that would make the island self-sufficient with electricity. The wind turbines are owned by a windmill cooperative and by individual owners.
Local public meetings and citizens groups worked to generate the broadest possible base of public support for these initiatives.
Houses outside the district heating districts were given several different options. They could requisition an energy appraisal of their house, a report which gave specific suggestions for conversion to renewable energy, as well as advice on how to conserve energy by improving house insulation and installing better windows and class A electrical appliances. Until 2002, a national program subsidised the installation of biomass heating, solar collectors and heat pump systems, an incentive that convinced many homeowners to replace their oil furnaces and electric panel heaters.
Several small-scale projects started after the energy island project in 1998. These investigated the viability of methane gas, disposal site gases and canola oil for vehicle transportation. During this same period, seven household windmills and three PV solar collectors systems were established.
The foundation work for the ten offshore wind turbines started in 2002 and the offshore wind park was the biggest project in the renewable energy implementation plan. These wind turbines were erected to compensate for the CO2 emissions from the transport sector and to match the energy consumption in this sector. Technical solutions are not yet available that can replace all the island vehicles.
The Samsø Energy Academy was built in 2006 and opened its doors for visitors in 2007.

Results

The dependency on energy-import has been reduced from 7.3 mill.€ per year to 4.1 mill.€.  The emission of CO2 is reduced by 140%.
The number of “technical tourists” is approx. 1,000 per year, visiting the Energy Academy to learn from their experience.
The island provides 70% of its heat with district heating plants. Gradually, islanders are increasingly using biodiesel for liquid fuels.
For electricity, islanders installed 15 new wind turbines.  The turbines on land are owned individually by local farmers.
To compensate for liquid fuels used in transportation, the islanders installed ten 2.3 MW wind turbines offshore, two of which are cooperatively owned by 450 shareholders.

Critical Success Factors / Challenges

During the brief summer months residents depend on the 50,000 visitors to the island. Traditional occupations for the remainder of the year, such as fishing, have been in steady decline. The move to renewables was considered essential for the “survival of the island.” The island and its year-round residents needed a new strategy.
Local public meetings and citizens groups worked to generate the broadest possible base of public support for these initiatives.

Coca-Cola and Global Water Partnership Mediterranean launch an innovative programme to fight water shortage in Cyclades

Objectives and target audience

Project’s objectives: Confront the problem of water shortage in the Cyclades Islands and promote rational management of rain water for multiple purposes.

Target audience: The program will have a pilot implementation on the public buildings of five island municipalities in Naxos, Paros, Tinos, and two municipalities in Syros

Financial Resources and Partners involved

Financial Resources : “Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company”, in collaboration with the Mediterranean sector of the non-government oranization “Global Water Partnership”

Process

Installation of rain-water tanks, cisterns and underground water barriers

• Training seminars for local technicians and members of local technical services, on the methods of construction and maintenance of water collecting systems
• Actions for the increase of local consciousness on alternative techniques
• Educational programs in local primary and secondary schools, concerning the rational management of water and the importance of alternative techniques of using the available water resources

Results

In 2008 “Mission for Water” managed to:

• circulate 127.300 information brochures
• organize 15 events, including conferences, exhibitions and lectures in Attica and Thessaloniki
• collaborate with Greek Prefectures, Municipalities and Communities, Non-Government Organizations, Universities and one radio station.
• participate in various events that were organized by the Greek Ministries of Internal Affairs, Transport & Telecommunications, Environment & Public Works and Education.

Critical Success Factors / Challenges

The Aegean islands, especially Cyclades, are considered to be among the most problematic areas concerning water shortage.  The limited rainfalls, their geological structure, the scarce vegetation and the human interventions have resulted in an acute problem of water shortage, therefore the implementation of the program “Mission for Water” is expected to make a considerable contribution in water saving.
The program’s pilot Action Plan implementation on public buildings of five island municipalities is expected to create a best-practice model that will be promoted by the mass-media, in order to be widespread for the benefit of all local communities in Greece and other Mediterranean countries.
The measured results and the know-how aquired through the implementation of the pilot program will be made available to all island municipalities and will be presented in a series of international conferences.

Project’s objectives: The project will have significant impact on the environment and on the socio-economical situation of the island.
Target audience: The benefiting island community totals in winter 7,500 inhabitants growing to 20,000 in summer.

Financial Resources and Partners involved

Financial Resources : European Commission
Partnership : A number of partners co-operate to develop the project, each one with its specific know-how and resources. The partners are: PPC (Public Power Corporation), ENERIN  (Consorzio Ansaldo Energie Rinnovabili), Orengine Ltd., Istituto Tecnologico delle Canarie, Ikarian Co. for Development of Energy, Tourism and Water.

Process

• Local renewable energy sources available on the island, namely water, wind and solar power shall cover nearly 50% of total electricity demand.
• Create the basic infrastructures for future solar- and wind-power expansions allowing to reach the most cost-effective energy-mix totalling approximately 6 MW of wind-power allowing to cover 90% of the islands electricity demand from renewables
• Creation of an integrated hybrid (renewables + diesel) public power supply network on an island allowing for compensation between seasonally counter-phased renewables (hydropower available during winter, solar- and wind-power in summer).
• High penetration rates in a power grid of stochastically behaving, i.e. not-dispatchable(*) renewables (wind- and solar power) by exploiting the energy storage capacity of the system
• Development and divulgation of reference standards, best practices and modularity requirements favouring the replicability of the technology in other applications and areas of the world.
• Outcomes and lessons learned shall focus on the management of the energy storage facility serving to allow for high grid-penetration of non-dispatchable RE sources, independent from the type of energy storage adopted, i.e. whether it be a water storage adopting fresh water, brackish or sea-water, or else an electrochemical accumulator or any other type.

Results

The following table summarises the substantial environmental benefits expected to be produced by the project:

In addition the project will result also in quiet nights for the islanders (and for tourists), since generally it will become possible to stop all diesel (and the related noise) generators during most nights of the year, and to cover the night electricity demand only from renewables, namely hydro- and wind-power.
The following table presents the quantifiable socio-economic benefits to Ikaria Island expected to be generated by the project:

In addition the project is expected to generate a series of non-quantifiable socio-economic benefits such as:

• Ikaria will become an important candidate for “sustainable tourism”
• The project will introduce modern up-to-date technology on Ikaria Island
• training possibilities for islanders in sectors related to the project, and the local industries / enterprises will benefit from the availability of such qualified technicians
• The project will lay the foundations for future expansions of renewable energy capacities, which in turn will generate further income, employment and economic development.

Critical Success Factors / Challenges

Circulators are responsible for up to 15% of the electricity bills of private households. With energy efficient technologies these costs can be reduced significantly. In the EU-27, the electricity consumption by circulators for heating purposes in households amounts to more than 50 TWh per year and causes CO2 emissions of more than 30 million tons per year. The energy used by circulator pumps is equal to about 2 % of the overall electricity consumption in the EU. The use of energy efficient models can reduce the energy consumption and the costs for electricity of circulators in Europe significantly.
Objectives and target audience
To reduce the use of the non renewal energy resources and to innovate the production of these processes (technologies alternative).

Financial Resources and Partners involved

The total cost of this plant was of Euro 500.000,00. Partners involved: Municipality Of Milan.

Process

The objectives in the short term are: to widen the number of models on the market, to increase the original model one and to reduce their price through an increase of the production.  In order to reach the objective, the plan will adapt the methodology that was tested with what has planned in the plan energy+ for the transformation of the market of the refrigerators.  Therefore:

1. Combine great purchasers (as an example associations of popular houses) for support action from the manufacturers of pumps.
2. Connect the purchasers, the producers and the supporter through a periodic list of products available and with personal contacts.
3. Develop support material of the sale of efficient pumps; as an example an electronic sheet for their dimensioning. To diffuse the material through the associations of category and the producers.
4. Organize a contest for the more efficient products energy+ and to carry out independent tests of the performances of the contenders.
5. Disclose  widely the plan and the information through the situated dedicated web, the bulletin, the communication channels of mass and the fairs of the field.

Results

To reduce the use of the non renewal energy resources and to innovate the production processes (technologies alternative).

Critical Success Factors / Challenges

The type of action is favourably applicable because the plants are the subject of widespread intervention.

This case study describes a wind-energy project, located near the village of Vép, in Western Hungary, close to the Austrian border.  The focus is on the coordination and communication of the company – called Szélerő Vép Kht. – with the different groups and representatives of stakeholders.  Description of the authorization process is an important part.  This research is based on documents, brochures, articles concerning the project, and on interviews as well.

Objectives and target audience

Financial Resources and Partners involved

A large part of the already installed development was financed from EU support, the rest from bank credit and some own capital and similar is the financing strategy for the sec-ond and third phase, also involving grants and Austrian support.
Project cost: 862.000€
Partners involved:

• Hungarian Energy Office
• Ministry of Economy and Transport
• Local Government of Vép
• Administrative office
• Hungarian Trade Licensing Office (Technical safety licensing and inspection, Győr)
• Ministry of Environment and Water

Process

The wind farm built so far is the first phase of this investment. The second phase would include the construction of an additional three wind power stations with a total installed capacity of 4.8 MW.
The required environmental permits have all been granted, while construction permits are not all available. What is more, network connection agreement and the MEH (Hungarian Energy Office) permit are still missing.
The third phase of the investment would include the construction of 167 wind power stations with a total capacity of 32 MW and the issuing of connected environmental permits is already in progress.  The design phase and further permission-granting would be the next step.
The realization of these planned investment phases would have considerable additional influence on the life of the village of Vép since, based on the agreement signed with the Municipality, the company would spend the majority of its income on community purposes, thus the company would support developments related to local education as well as tourism and infrastructure.

Testing ESTEEM
The Hungarian Environmental Economics Centre (MAKK) has tested a draft version of the ESTEEM tool applying it to support the Vép wind project.  ESTEEM consists of six consecutive steps, which MAKK executed together with the project manager, Rudolf Piller during 2007.
The expectations of the project manager (PM) of Szélero Vép Kht were to explore and structure strategies that they can follow in order to be able to continue the project, to widen their field of contacts and negotiations from the local level, since locally they were already quite well prepared and ‘embedded’. The ESTEEM process entered the project line when it had already started, the first phase was implemented, but then further phases were blocked. Thus, it was not an early planning phase, but still a point of time when ESTEEM still had the potential to contribute. Its potential value was actually seen quite substantial if it could give a push to move further from the halted situation.
Step 1:  Past and present of the Vép wind project
Step 1 is constructed to establish the ESTEEM process. In a questionnaire aided interview, the project manager gave an account of the past from the project idea to the present status of his project in a systematic way, and based on this, the consultant drafted the first ‘substep’, the Narrative. The second substep, using two table templates examined the project put in its context, and identified what opportunities and barriers emerge from the policy, technologic, socio-economic, cultural and geographical environment. In the third substep the defining moments thus far in the life of the project were taken account of, their causes, consequences and irreversibility. The two major events were the erection of the first turbine and the national wind capacity limit that led to rejection of the permit of further turbines. The second and the third substep were first drafted by the consultant, then the PM reacted, corrected and complemented if it was necessary. In the fourth substep the project manager and consultant listed and briefly assessed the stakeholders of the project, their actual and potential role, interest, power and attitude.
During this step the consultant also got acquainted with the necessary details of the wind project. The step helped to build a common understanding between the consultant and PM. The PM deemed useful to reflect on the position of the project and it was a basis for strategy elaboration.
Step 2:  Vision building
In this step the PM’s and ‘core’ group stakeholders’ visions about the project and its context were constructed.  As an input, this formed the basis of comparisons of visions and analysis for the third step.
The present, intermediate (around till 2015) and future (2020-2030) PM’s visions, as well as the present and future social network maps were drafted by the consultant from Step 1 material and a phone discussion and then sent to PM for review and amendment. A meeting was then organised with the PM to finalise the visions and maps.
Step 3:  Collating visions
In this step MAKK analysed Step 2 material without much involving the project manager. The consultant first compared the PM’s visions with those of core stakeholders in order to discover in what they contradict and coincide and thereby to identify and characterize conflicting and synergetic issues. To this end, in the Conflicting Issues table the consultant listed numerous issues that characterised the vision of a given stakeholder, then examined which elements of these contradict or support the vision of the PM. There were only a few (but substantial) conflicting points, and quite many synergetic ones.

Step 4:  Identifying solutions
For each conflicting issue identified in Step 3, PM and MAKK searched, identified and discussed several possible solution options to overcome the controversies. The solution possibilities were divided into three categories: 1. adjustment of the design or operational mode of the wind turbines, 2. filling knowledge gaps through information provision and/or new research, 3. offering (or requesting) financial incentives. Eventually three of the four ranked conflicting issues were dealt with. The fourth issue (securing finance for advancing with the wind project) was dropped as it proved to be trivially solvable using bank loans and support funds once the major conflicting issue (having no permit from the Energy Office) is solved (that is its solvability is fully conditional on another major issue).
Step 5:  Stakeholder Workshop
A stakeholders’ workshop was held on November 16, 2007 to start discussions between stakeholders on their differing views, the barriers standing in the way of the Vép wind project and further wind developments so as to find compromising solutions for the blocked situation. The discussion was channelled into the themes of the three major conflicting issues selected in Step 3 and 4, but the solution options identified in Step 4 were only offered by the consultant for negotiation at a final point if stakeholders themselves did not mention those.
Step 6:  Planning for action
In the last step the consultant and PM synthesised and turned into action plans what they had learnt throughout the ESTEEM process – especially in Step 4 and the Workshop – about the adaptation possibilities of the wind  project and/or influencing its context. The goal of the action plans was to help the PM be able to move the project out of the current deadlock situation 1. by adjusting its features and operation mode whereby making it more acceptable for stakeholders 2. via collaboration with allies to achieve favourable changes in attitudes and rules/regulations of opposing stakeholders.

Results

The wind turbine in Vép replaces an annual amount of 600 tonnes of greenhouse gases.

Critical Success Factors

Icelandic New Energy (INE) is a company that promotes the use of hydrogen as a fuel in the transportation sector. INE is owned by the Icelandic holding company Vistorka (a cooperation platform made up of all the major power companies and research bodies as well as investment funds) and Daimler-Chrysler, Norsk Hydro and Shell Hydrogen. The company has been involved in developing the hydrogen economy in Iceland since 1999. INE works as an international project manager in demonstrations and research involving hydrogen applications for infrastructure, transportation and backup-power. These projects aim to facilitate Iceland’s transition to an economy which is run purely on renewable, local energy sources.
By 2006, the company had run a number of successful pilot projects, including a trial with three hydrogen fuel cell buses and an electrolytic production and filling hydrogen station (ECTOS project).
Along with this initiative several social surveys and inquiries with the public had been made indicating a general interest and positive attitude towards the idea of using hydrogen as a local energy carrier. INE was interested in testing a tool that could help address social acceptability issues for highly innovative technology projects.

Objectives and target audience

INE’s objective was to study and develop the use of hydrogen, hydrogen carriers, and fuel cells as energy systems in various fields of application in Iceland.
The political will transform Iceland into a hydrogen economy is very apparent as shown by the initiative for INE and the ECTOS Project. If hydrogen could be Iceland’s main energy carrier, the island would free itself from dependence on imported fossil fuels and it could easily reach its Kyoto protocol commitments on CO2  emissions. Iceland’s technical, financial and political communities see this development as a stepping stone towards reaching their objective, which is to be a self-sufficient energy provider for all the island’s energy requirements.
Because the ECTOS Project combines environmental and technological aspects, it is the first step in a foreseen transition to a hydrogen-based economy for Iceland. The main objectives of the project are:

• to gain experience in establishing a new infrastructure, interacting with the regenerative electric supply system;
• to estimate the cost and timeframe of integrating a new infrastructure for the fuelling distribution system of the future;
• to contribute to creating a CO2 -neutral public transport system;
• to gain public acceptance for the use of an alternative energy source to power the transport system that is independent of fossil fuel supplies;
• to study the life-cycle analysis of the equipment (buses and the filling station) and the fuel production chain.

Financial Resources and Partners involved

After an evaluation by a panel of experts, the EU decided to support ECTOS with 2.85 million EUR (3.4 million USD, at an exchange rate of .846 EUR/USD) out of the total cost of 7 million EUR (8.3 million USD).
Partners involved :

• Icelandic New Energy
• Vistorka
• DaimlerChrysler and EvoBus
• European Commission
• Shell Hydrogen
• Skeljungur in Iceland (Shell Iceland)
• Norsk Hydro Electrolysers
• University of Iceland

Process

About Iceland
The conditions on Iceland make it an ideal test ground for the new hydrogen economy. There are five main reasons for this:

1. Iceland is a small, highly developed society. It has a population of only 280,000, the majority of whom lives in the Reykjavik area, and some 180,000 vehicles. Because of this scale, small projects have more impact than they would in larger societies (three buses in Reykjavik comprise 4% of the total bus fleet).
2. Iceland has experience in switching from one energy source to another. Space heating was converted from oil to geothermal heating between 1940 and 1975. So there is a thorough understanding of the fine points of such a shift.
3. Iceland has standards and transport systems that are similar to those in most other developed countries. This means the results of any research project can be easily transferred to other sites.
4. The new hydrogen technology can be evaluated under the severe Icelandic weather conditions, seasonal changes, and a varied topography.
5. Iceland has the rare opportunity of being able to operate a hydrogen-based fuel project in a next to zero CO2  system. The island is already 99% dependent on renewable geothermal and hydroelectric energy. Therefore, the hydrogen will be produced by electrolyses run on electricity from geothermal steam turbines and hydropower.

Public support
Apart from these conditions, Iceland’s social environment is also ideal. Social acceptance of a hydrogen-based future is very high. A recent survey showed that 93 percent of the Icelandic people are very positive about the idea of replacing traditional fossil fuels with fuel cells. One of the key factors assumed to impact the public view is increased independence of the Iceland economy. In addition, Iceland’s technical, financial and political communities see the development as a means of achieving their ambition, which is to become a self-sufficient energy provider for all the island’s energy needs.
With the announcement of its aim to transform Iceland into a hydrogen economy in the near future, the Icelandic government has demonstrated that it is one of the main drivers behind the hydrogen project on the island. The vision is to see the transformation completed by the year 2050.
It goes without saying that many aspects still have to be investigated. Will there be cost
savings for customers? Will there be cost savings on a national level? How much assistance is the government going to give during the transition period? What new legislation is needed? The Icelandic authorities are evaluating these and other aspects in close co-operation with all the relevant parties.
Applying ESTEEM
Maria Maack is a project manager at Icelandic New Energy, where she works together the general manager of the company and another project manager at promoting hydrogen in Iceland. She has applied ESTEEM as an ‘in-house ESTEEM consultant’ at Icelandic New Energy.
The SMARTH2 project started to use ESTEEM in April-May 2007. As always, this was a busy time for the SMARTH2 project: Its governmental funding had just been announced publicly after years of negotiations with the companies that would be test users of the hydrogen cars and the suppliers of cars and other equipment. But Maria wanted to get an organizational overview and find out if views that were reported from former surveys were unchanged and perhaps understand underlying expectations; what stakeholders think about hydrogen in Iceland and how they perceive the SMARTH2 project within the local energy context. She decided to first organize a small workshop in Reykjavik, to which the Create Acceptance team of researchers would be invited as external facilitators.
The ESTEEM process starts with Step 1 ‘Project history, context and actors’. In SMARTH2, the ‘narrative’ was based on material that was familiar to Maria and her colleagues, but identifying the ‘defining moments’ was useful for creating self-awareness within the project management and assessing the status of project, and who were involved in problem solving during the design phase. Moreover, the ‘context analysis’ and ‘actors’ table’ proved useful to pinpoint who are the ‘active participants’ and their stakes concerning the project, this was linked to the work done for  Step 2. The ‘actors table’ also helped INE to devote more attention to ‘external’ and ‘peripheral’ stakeholders in addition to the owners and customers of the project.
Step 2 followed closely on the footsteps of Step 1. In this step, the visions of the project manager and those core stakeholders are articulated. The stakeholder visions were extracted by organizing a workshop (rather than through interviews as suggested to be the first choice in the ESTEEM manual). In preparation for the workshop, the social network maps for ‘PM present vision’ and ‘PM future vision’  were combined. They show that the SMARTH2 project is a complex project involving stakeholders in the fields of technology, science, society, policy/politics, market and partners/investors.
Moreover, each category of stakeholders involves representatives from different societal groups.
Step 3 ‘Identifying the conflicting issues’ was useful for organizing the results of the workshop and establishing priorities. Maria found the ‘issues rating graph’ useful for communicating priorities and inspiring a search for solutions. As a result, continuity and local visibility were identified as having high urgency and priority, and these are the issues that SMARTH2 started working on right after Step 2.
Step 4, ‘Portfolio of options’ focuses on identifying options to improve the social acceptability of the project. Because INE started solving the problems right after the workshop, the Step 4 tables were used in SMARTH2 to monitor which issues had already been solved and to follow the development of the issues and solutions in the time following the workshop.
Step 5, ‘Getting to shake hands’, consists of organizing a workshop for stakeholders. The most urgent issue, and most problematic was to get all stakeholders to the future scenario workshop, including opponents and those who influence the general discourse in society. This event can be interpreted as a demand from the public through INE to make the governmental policy on hydrogen more visible in the local context. Also to encourage a broad discussion on all types of alternative fuels in the local context. This has many conflicting issues that need to be at least discussed at the same level: hydrogen versus other types of fuel, fuel security, governmental support without suppressing private initiatives, research policy, financial policy, taxation policy, current energy infrastructure, agriculture and energy use etc. The issues were so many, so broad and so close to the core activities of Icelandic New Energy that Maria decided to ask the University to step in and conduct this stakeholder workshop and act as a go-between for the government, the company and all those who may have stakes in a new fuel economy in the Icelandic context. Maria on the other hand mobilized the ministry of Industry, the oil companies, those interested in local and global economy development and others that had appeared on the original map of actors within the SMARTH2. The ESTEEM Workshop cookbook was introduced to the University as a framework for the next actions. Four students and two department chefs were engaged since the goal became to outline a frame that could give rise to research projects on all types of new fuels and energy carriers for the Icelandic society.
Step 6, ‘Recommendations for action’. After the workshop, Maria sat down to think about the next steps. First, she listed the main results from the workshop in terms of acceptability of the different options suggested. She also made a list of the new options that emerged from the workshop. For planning where to take it from there, she started out by filling in the
‘acceptance and feasibility table’. Using these tables, Maria drew up for INE a short-term action plan, a collaboration plan and a long-term capacity building and monitoring plan. Moreover, the workshop helped her to update INE’s communication plan and include there the new actions that need to be communicated to the stakeholders.

Results

Critical Success Factors / Challenges

The outcome of the ECTOS Project could have major implications for the future of hydrogen power globally. Many other countries are increasingly sourcing energy from renewable sources that can also be used to produce hydrogen. The ultimate challenge for these countries is producing the hydrogen and establishing an infrastructure for its delivery. The ECTOS Project could serve as a model to the rest of the world for a hydrogen-based future.

Archimede Project is a solar power plant project under construction in Sicily. The Archimede Project represents the first application worldwide of the integration of a gas – burned combine cycle power plant and a thermodynamic solar energy system. The project is named Archimedes, after the famous resident of the nearby city of Syracuse. The existing gas-fired power plant on the site will be augmented by Archimedes, which should produce 5 megawatts of electricity, enough for 4,500 families. ENEA has set up several new projects aimed at addressing some of the major issues in the fields of energy and the environment, amongst which, a vast research programme in Clean energy, focused on Distributed energy and renewable sources (Clean carbon; Bio fuels; Thermodynamic solar power). This institute has been involved in developing the solar thermo dynamic project since 2000, when the Italian Government granted an extraordinary contribution to Enea, by the Law n°388/2000 for a research program, development and demonstrative production to the industrial scale of electric power by using solar energy as source of heat for high temperatures. This law stated that the phase of realization of the Archimede plant would be realised by Enea in collaboration with an industrial partner. In 2004  Enel , Italy’s largest power company and Europe’s second-largest utility for installed capacity, was involved in this project. The mirrors are the core in the plant, the result of the partnership Enel-Enea. A field of large mirrors concentrate solar radiation on pipes containing an auxiliary fluid. The heat is used to raised the temperature of the fluid and keep it high, in order to take advantage of solar power at any time of the day or during any weather condition.
On the 26 March 2007, Enel and Enea signed an agreement, in order to build the ‘Archimede’ plant in Priolo Gargallo. In this second phase of the project, Enel, became the main contractor.

Objectives and target audience

The aim of this project is  to develop a technology that will produce energy by solar source, offering an efficient alternative to oil energy and a path to reducing carbon dioxide emissions. It will increase with 5 MW the power of the existing combined loop plant in Priolo, entirely through renewable source, allowing Enea to use its scientific results into a commercial standard plant and to produce green energy at market prices, with an industrial national partner.
The first production of energy is forecasted for the end 2009 or beginning 2010.

Financial Resources and Partners involved

The Archimedes project is part of Enel Environment Plan which provides investment for more than 4 million euros between now and 2011 new plants using renewable sources and research and development of environment-friendly technologies.
Partners involved:-

• Enea;
• EnelArchimede solar Energy;
• A consortium of industrial suppliers.

Process

Applying ESTEEM
The Esteem tool was applied on the Archimede project. In 2007, the tools were tested along their six steps, with Ceris/CNR as a ‘consultant’ to project management representative (PM), M. Mauro Vignolini, Enea.

Step 1:  Project history, context and actors
The ESTEEM process starts with the ‘narrative’ of the Archimede project. Ceris could describe the project past and present, using the interviews with the project management and material gathered by other sources.
Starting by the project narrative, defining moments have been identified, during which the project has been modified. This sub step helped to clarify the events and the actors involved. It was very useful for the PM since it represented a synthetic vision of the past and present project history. It was a reflection moment on the chronological events and on the internal changes of this project.
The ‘context analysis’ and ‘actors’ table’ were the tools that helped PM and consultants to have a clear idea of the barriers and opportunities related to the project, and to identify the ‘key actors’ involved in the Archimede project. Ceris enriched the context in which the project will be put into, looking for information sources such as national or local debates, policy initiatives and laws.

Step 2:  Vision building
Starting from the past and present situation, the next step envisaged the project future, trying to identify major changes that could happen in its social dimensions, such as politics, societal, market science technology. Key actors were also identified accordingly.
Ceris and PM discussed about the future visions and together made the selection of the core stakeholders, on the basis of the project context analysis.
The time considered for the future visions was no more than 5 years, that is the visions concerning the project. Ceris has chosen to follow the method of the individual  interviews rather than the organization of a workshop, considering it was more suited to this case. Representatives of the Italian Ministries of Economy, of Environment, and managers of Enel (future PM) and of the Consortium of industrial suppliers (leader) were interviewed one by one.
Based on the single recorded interview, Ceris designed for each vision the future social network map. This was necessary mainly because the key actors participate with different interests.
Comparing the drafted visions, interesting remarks emerged, such as a time horizon difference between the future vision of different stakeholders: some had very short term orientations and others had rather long term ones. Equally, different level of commitments were observable (short term visions were often associated with weakest commitment).

Step 3:  Vision confrontation
Ceris has worked on all the inputs gathered, to find a feasible direction of this project, gaining a clear view of the alignments and misalignments within the project.
At this point, it became clear for the consultant that the project is entering in the demo industrial phase and that there are no significant oppositions to it. In the short term the project will find a realization, due to a convergence of all the key actors, for different reasons and interests. At the same time, new roads are opening for long terms technology evolution and application.
This reflection helped to pinpoint possible conflicting issues in terms of problems and opportunity for the solar thermodynamic technology future.

Step 4:  Identifying solutions
Closely related to the previous reflections, this step was crucial and revealed the room for action towards this pilot project.
In this demo, it proved less useful to compare the PM position with other stake holder’s options.
Instead, all stakeholders were asked to position themselves freely on some critical issues, to be collectively debated. Participating in the stakeholder workshop, they could imagine interesting possible alternatives.

Step 5:  Stakeholders workshop
The conclusions drawn from previous steps were presented during a semi structured Workshop organised by Ceris in December 2007. The consultant considered this event as a strategic moment to test the commitment and the feasibility of new roads for the technology, highlighting the differences among stakeholders’ future visions and facilitating a free confrontation.
The aim was to produce a much higher awareness of the viability of the alternatives to solar thermodynamic technology. Another goal was to jointly define the pathway of the project with regard to technology development, feasibility and long term support for the project.
One particularity of Archimede, as a project, is the high level of institutionalisation of its stakeholders. Ceris had to take this fact into account to adapt and apply ESTEEM.
CNR contacted and informed each of the participants, involving not only the core stakeholders group but also representative of the civil society: NGO’s, environmental and consumer associations, industrial associations.

During this meeting all of them discussed three main issues proposed by CNR:

• Availability of sites and production of energy from solar thermodynamic in Italy
• Techno-economical efficiency of the plants and production in Italy or export of this technology
• The role of the Italian government: what we can learn from other experiences?

The number of participants allowed an open and lively discussion on matters such as technology, market and political issues related to the project. It has been a unique occasion for the project manager to present some clarification directly to the Government on some key aspects of the technology applications. The interest of Archimede in terms of storage and high temperature as well as underline the existence of alternative storage applications, such as diathermic oil was exposed, as well as the existence of several investment projects abroad. The technology, even in its early experimental phase, seemed to have already attracted some clients. Environmental associations did not fully share the visions presented, and this dialogue will probably have to be carried out further in the near future.

Step 6:  Recommendations for action
The reactions and remarks collected from the stakeholders were summarized. Ceris could identify three kinds of activities that did not required substantial change of the original plan:

• A short term action plan might include further investments in the thermodynamic solar technology to facilitate its diffusion, as well as some efforts in the component industry.
• A Collaboration plan aimed at mobilizing the ‘right people’, including a close relation and coordination between the different European , national and regional levels.
• Finally, a long term action plan, that can be supportive to the new PM, aimed to strengthen the communication channel and to check the social acceptance, organizing for example initiatives towards young people, and monitoring the European policy for the solar technology.

The solar plant consists of a solar field of 40acres, a storage system and a steam generator. In the modular solar field the solar energy is collected in 360 linear parabolic collectors with a surface of 200.000. The movable collectors are arranged in parallel rows that each form a single string. The number of strings determines the thermal energy and thus the power of the plant. ENEA introduced a new fluid heat carrier (mixture of sodium and potassium) in order to increase the operating temperature and the possibility of storing heat. Another innovation of ENEA is the design of a new type of concentrator based on thinner mirrors that saves construction and installation costs.
The use of large scale heat storage is another innovation in the Archimedes project. Due to two storage tanks operating at different temperatures, the plant provides heat to the steam generator at a constant rate 24 hours a day, regardless of variations in solar energy availability. The steam generator consists of ‘tube and shell’ heat exchangers in which heat is transferred to water to produce super-heated steam for use in a conventional thermoelectric plant. The Archimedes project is the first of its kind in the world. Apart from disseminating new technologies, ENEA also wants to stimulate the creation of a self-sustained market. The sunlight, especially in the south of Italy, can make the country rely mainly on solar power.

Results

The plant’s battery of the 360 parabolic mirrors will focus the sun’s rays on pipes, through which runs a saline liquid that can store heat up to 550 °C and retain it for hours.
The addition of the solar plant to the power station should significantly reduce the amount of gas burnt at the plant and cut carbon dioxide emissions by 7,300 tonnes.
The Esteem tool allowed the PM of Archimede project to enlarge his vision to socio-economic aspects and to include new stakeholders. It has been useful  for putting into evidence the necessity of working stakeholders such as the public, the media, the non expert decision makers and how they can frame the technology from the early moments, building positive expectations. The workshop has been a key moment for the PM to present some clarification in a public forum on some critical aspects of the technology applications and potentiality. Esteem has produced mainly an improvement of the Archimede project communication strategy towards environmental and social associations and the large public, together with a list of recommendations directly presented by stakeholders.

Critical Success Factors / Challenges?

In general, the aesthetics of standard photovoltaic modules is a major obstacle for broader diffusion of the technology. Other relevant factors that emerged by this experience is the attitude of monument protection authorities. They need to be ‘educated’ about innovative solar technologies, due to the considerable lack of knowledge.
A strong recommendation is made for several activities that are needed to overcome the barriers that the project faced.
The main ones are:

1. transferability of results
2. disseminations
3. training and teaching
4. networking.

Finally, the economic aspect must be regarded as a key factor: this is a concerns for all the stakeholders. The existing incentives have to be made more efficient with respect to innovation and design; financial support systems should be long-term oriented, in order to decrease risk and attract private investments; an effective incentive scheme should devote part of the financial resources to promotion and information dissemination activities. On the other hand, the interest of SMEs and architects is concentrated on costs and amortization aspects and about how much improved aesthetics can cost more than the standard version.

The zero emission power plant (ZEPP) is an innovative concept for oxyfuel combustion of 170 MWth (50MWe) power plant in Drachten/Akkrum. It is expected a capture rate of 250,000 ton CO2 annualy, with transport and storage into gas fields for EGR, resulting in a yield of natural gas of about 40 million cubic metres.

Objectives and target audience

A reduction of approximately 1 Megaton CO2-emission can be achieved over a period of four years. Furthermore, the ZEPP plant will not emit any NOx, SO2 or ‘fine dust’, due to the special combustion process using pure oxygen.

Financial Resources and Partners involved

The ZEPP in Drachten is initiated by the Dutch company SEQ Nederland B.V. Financial support is given by ONS energy, an electricity distribution company, local governments and by Energy Valley, a public private foundation with local, national and European members, which stimulates the economy of the North of the Netherlands through the financing of energy activities.
The zero emission power plant (ZEPP) project involves the collaboration of SEQ Nederland BV, ENECO Milieu BV, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) and the Stichting Energy Valley initiative and will cost €60 million of which €10 million is subsidy from Ministry of Finance.

Process

Applying ESTEEM
The Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) has applied and tested the ESTEEM tool in the ZEPP project. ECN executed the six steps of the tool together with the project manager, Wouter van de Waal during 2007.

Step 1:  Project past & present
Based on two interviews with Mr Van de Waal, ECN wrote the narrative of the project. A story-like text on the past and current situation of the ZEPP starting with the first ideas of Van de Waal to store CO2  under ground in 1999 until the concrete plans of the ZEPP as they are in 2007. Based on the narrative, the table with defining moments of the project  was compiled: a chronological overview of moments in the past that have influenced the project in a major way, for example the introduction of project partners, the concession to use the gas field, financial support decisions, etc. ECN also analysed the context of the project in the barriers and opportunities tables in which potential opportunities and barriers of the project are shortly described. Together with Van de Waal ECN finally present situation: stakeholder map ZEPP compiled an overview of all the stakeholders and their past, current and possible future role in the actors table.

Step 2:  Vision building
In the second step of the ESTEEM process ECN investigated the future visions for the project in 2020 of project manager Van de Waal and seven stakeholders. These stakeholders were selected using the criteria in the ESTEEM manual and included stakeholders such as local and national government (municipality, province, ministry of Economic Affairs and Ministry of Environmental affairs), technology developers (Siemens), NGOs (Friesche Milieufederatie) and an interest group for local industries. Based on face-to-face interviews ECN wrote the visions in the format of a future newspaper article (20     September 2020) with a title summarising the vision. Also a network map was designed for each vision, visualising the relations between stakeholders in the future.

Step 3:  Vision confrontation
In the third step ECN analysed and compared the visions drafted in the previous step and derived potential comparison. In total thirteen identified (for example whether or not to have a cooling tower, role of local versus national government, etc) as well as seven opportunities (for example joined heat supply with a local biomass plant and making use of locally available services and industries) which had not been mentioned by the project manager before.

Step 4:  Identifying solutions
For each controversy and opportunity identified in the previous step Mr Van de Waal and ECN discussed one or more strategies to overcome the controversies and make use of the opportunities.
These strategies were divided into four categories: adjustments of the installation design or (change of) location, gaining extra knowledge through articulating new research questions, financial incentives and others. In total Mr Van de Waal and ECN identified 29 new strategies for the project.

Step 5:  Stakeholder workshop
ECN grouped the controversies and opportunities identified in step 3 of the ESTEEM process in five themes which were discussed at a stakeholder workshop. ECN organised this workshop in November 2007. The location was provided by one of the neighbouring companies at the industrial area where the ZEPP is planned. The goal of this workshop was twofold:
1.    Identifying and debating strategies, that are desirable from a societal point of view, in interaction with SEQ and relevant stakeholders.
2.    Testing the fifth step of ESTEEM to gain experience and refine it.

Step 6:  Planning for action
In the last step of ESTEEM, ECN has categorized all strategies formulated in the stakeholder workshop into activities and actions to be taken on the short time and do not require extensive cooperation activities, activities that do require extensive collaboration with third parties and actions focusing on the long time and/or monitoring.
These actions are further elaborated into sub-actions and concrete recommendations for the project manager by ECN in three different plans for action:

• A short term action plan, including for example adaptations to plant design proposed by stakeholders or specific information supply to local residents.
• Collaboration plan, including for example collaboration with the city council for improving the green image of Drachten by advertising the ZEPP and also advertising residual heat to potential users.
• Long term action plan, including for example strategies for taking part in national and international debate on the relation between Carbon Capture & Storage technologies and renewable energy.

In these plans the project manager was provided with details about what steps the project
manager needs to take from a societal perspective with the aim of increasing societal acceptance of the ZEPP in Drachten.

Results

At full capacity the plant can generate sufficient climate neutral power for approximately 150,000 households, which corresponds to about 50% of all Frisian households. A local (climate neutral) heat grid with a capacity of around 15 MW will also form part of the project.

Critical Success Factors / Challenges?

Educational Park for renewable energy resources and ways for saving energy

Objectives and target audience

- The Objectives are the below

• People’s education in the field of energy saving and reduction of energy use

• People’s education for all types of renewable energy

• Citizens activation and sensitization (Development of active citizens-formation of active behaviors)

-The target group is all citizens of the region of Attica.

Financial Resources and Partners involved

The project was implemented by the Centre of Renewable Energy Resources (CRES) and co-funded by the 3rd Community Operational Framework Programme “Competitiveness” of the Ministry of Development.

Process

- Decision taking by the administrative board of CRES
- Looking for financial resources
- Choice of the area
- Planning actions.
- Implementation of the construction
-Monitoring park’s operation

Results

There are not results yet. The project has just been completed.

Critical Success Factors / Challenges

The key issues for success was:
- The coordination between the involved carriers.

Re-building destroyed districts using the principles of bioclimatism

Objectives and target audience

- The Objectives are the below

• Saving energy, reduction of energy use

• Reduction of greenhouse emissions

• Saving resources, reduction of resources use

• Economic benefits

• Improvement of citizens quality of life

• Citizens activation and sensitization (Development of active citizens-formation of active behaviors)

-The target group was all citizens of Kalamata’s Municipality.

Financial Resources and Partners involved

Funding came from different sources:

• A loan from the European Investment Bank,
• Grants from the European Commission through the THERMIE programme,
• The Municipality of Kalamata gave the land free of charge to DEAK (the municipal corporation for the rebuilding of Kalamata).

Process

- Decision taking by the municipal authorities
- Pursuit for financial resources
- Choice of the area: The project concerned 120 new homes using direct or indirect solar heating. Buildings are 9 to 10.5 meter high up to the roof and include dwelling units of different sizes and types:

• Two-storey family houses,

• Family flats in blocks of flats,

• Student’s flats in blocks of flats.

-Analysis of the microclimate, building sitting, window orientation and roof ventilation, the use of natural ventilation and air-conditioning and the optimisation of natural light.
-Choice of the techniques:

• Insulation of external walls,
• Building orientation and optimisation of the distances between them
• Roof ventilation
• Solar collectors
• Optimised fenestration depending on solar radiation.

- Implementation of the construction
- Informative campaign carried out from 96 to May 97
-    Collaboration between the inhabitants and CRES for monitoring the energy savings: collection of statistic data per m² of building and financial comparisons.

Results

The innovative techniques used in this project appears however as interesting economic solution for this part of Europe. In winter, they allow to reduce energy consumption by 35 to 65% depending of the type of buildings. As regard pollutant emissions, 7.8 to 18.5 tonnes of CO2 per dwelling house are also avoided. In summer, the indoor temperature limited to 30 °C, a result which was confirmed by the inhabitants themselves in surveys.
Another remark would refer to the inhabitants’ behaviour. The huge differences in the energy savings achieved (from 35 to 65% depending on the flats) are exclusively linked to the inhabitants’ behaviour and their willingness to contribute to energy savings. This demonstrates the need for providing the inhabitants with suitable information when launching this type of experience.
The Kalamata experience in the field of low energy houses served also as an example for other projects in the region, including:
•improved insulation in private and public buildings,
•adaptation of a solar system for producing domestic hot water in the municipal slaughterhouse
•projects aimed at integrating energy savings in municipal stadiums and sports facilities.

Critical Success Factors / Challenges

The key issues for success were:
- The coordination between the municipality’s services and the Athenian architects’ office selected for the operation.
- The cooperation with CRES (Center for Renewable Energy Resources)
-    -The dissemination of the monitoring results.