RGI  News    August  2012    

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RGI  News  April  2012    New signatories of the European Grid Declaration and work on expanding the Declaration 4 further organisations have signed the European Grid Declaration in the first quarter of 2012: the Luxemburg TSO CREOS, the German nature and biodiversity protection union NABU, CIVILSCAPE, the European NGO for the Landscape Convention and the European Hydrogen Association joined the 24 initial signatories. The updated signed document is available online at: http://renewables-grid.eu/documents/eu-grid-declaration.html The European Grid Declaration addresses environmental concerns and defines a set of principle for grid expansion in harmony with nature conservation. However, public opposition to grid expansion is often fuelled by concerns about the need for grids, the impacts on amenities, landscape and health. RGI is therefore preparing an expanded version of the EGD to include principles to address stakeholders' concerns and in particular to define meaningful and strong participatory processes for public consultations. The expanded European Grid Declaration will further strengthen the cooperation among TSOs and NGOs supporting grid expansion to integrate renewables. At this occasion, non-RGI-members are invited to participate in the preparatory discussions and to sign the Declaration. RGI conducts a best practice project In the course of 2012, the Renewables-Grid-Initiative is conducting a project on best practices. This work will make available best practices on the planning and permitting process of grid expansion projects to integrate renewable energy. This will serve the sharing and learning among and across TSOs, NGOs and other stakeholder groups. It will go hand in hand with other RGI work, such as a European Grid Declaration on participation and transparency (a follow-up work on the first “European Grid Declaration” of November 2011). Both a second European Grid Declaration and the report on best practices will be presented to policymakers at a large conference in Brussels in the end of 2012. The results will be implemented by RGI partners in on-going grid expansion projects for renewables as well as in future pilot projects. More information available at: http://renewables-grid.eu/activities/best-practices.html RGI animation and brochure EMPOWERED = CONNECTED available in 4 languages The RGI brochure has been translated to Dutch, French, German and Italian, the animation is available in English, French, German, and Italian. You can find the various language on our website and hard copies of the brochure can be ordered at the

RGI  News    August  2012    

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RGI secretariat. Don't hesitate to distribute, embed and link the information material on your website too. If you are interested in translating the brochure and/or animation into your local language, please do get in touch with the RGI secretariat. http://renewables-grid.eu/documents/grid-simply-explained.html http://renewables-grid.eu/documents/animation-film.html RGI is engaging in social media You can now easily twitter and share RGI news with your facebook, google+ and linkedin friends. You will find the social media buttons at the bottom of each internet page.    German Premiere of Grid Master Class in May 2012 THEMA1, the Berlin-based think-do-tank which has co-initiated RGI, has set up the European programme Grid Master Class. The two intensive courses, developed with the support of SEFEP, aim at fostering better understanding between citizen groups and specialists in the grid sector through an educative programme: "Understanding the Grid" is a crash course on the necessary basic knowledge any layman needs to have to be enabled to participate in grid related discussions. It covers questions such as "how does the grid work? what is the difference between a cable and an overhead line? what are environmental and health issues? And what are the grid planning procedures? The pilot class will take place in Berlin on 9-10 May. "Understanding the Public" is an intensive course offered to specialists of the grid sector who have a difficult time understanding why laymen need to intervene in grid planning and to receive so much attention. The module provides them with an overview of public perception and participation aspects and state-of-art communication. The pilot class will take place in Berlin on 23 May. The Grid Master Class shall be a neutral platform for learning basics and secrets of electricity grids and their public perception, delivered by an independent actor. After the pilot phase, taking place in Mai in Berlin, the Grid Master Class programme will be offered to further European regions, amongst others at the Festival dell'Energia in Perugia in June 2012. More information in German, shortly also in English, are available at www.gridmasterclass.eu. Please don't hesitate to forward them to your German contacts.