The RETS: Renewable Energies Transfer System project has grown up out of a local experience of economic development through renewable energies (RES) in Northern Alsace (France).The project aims to tackle the challenges of renewable energies for local and regional authorities (and in particular those with less than 25,000 inhabitants) in association with the expertise of existing competency centres that produce research and provide services on RES. These small sized authorities have to combat issues linked to their territorial competitiveness and access to project management skills for the implementation of complex projects (energy–mix).The main objective of RETS is to improve the knowledge and competencies of local and regional policymakers (decision makers, civil servants …) in renewable energies, so as to facilitate the deployment of coherent and value added strategic renewable energies policies. This will be realised through the creation of a European community for localauthorities on RES, comprised of two key elements: physical tools for meeting and exchanging viewpoints and a virtual platform for collaborative exchange and transfer of good practice through an innovative online approach.The RETS partnership counts 12 partners from 9 EU Member States: France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, UK, the Netherlands, Romania, and Slovenia. It has been developed with the idea of obtaining partners with different types and levels of experiences in the deployment of RES and sustainable management. The panel contains local authorities, universities, energy agencies and associations, more or less advanced in their policy and experiences.The core RETS activities concern the creation of simple usable tools for local authorities in order to help them make informed choices for the implementation of the right renewable energy strategy within their territories: - Collection and analysis of regional RES initiatives and production of a good practice guidebook(45 good practices collected and 20 transferred)- Study visits (6) to exchange on ideas and practices between network members- Tailored RES seminars for local authorities (10 seminars) to transfer knowledge, good practices and stimulate policy implementation- Creation of an online RES community bringing together local authorities and RES experts on a collaborative tool, allowing them to find, exchange, discuss and transfer information on RES in an innovative way (publication of 25 articles on the web portal). - Dissemination of the results using both traditional (3 conferences, paper publications (leaflet, brochure), 10 newsletters, press releases) and new forms of communication (website, online collaborative tool).The immediate project result is expected within the members of the consortium and their regional local authority network contacts. RETS will then rapidly have a wider reach through the diffusion of its good practices and knowledge via the RETS web portal and guidebook. Achievements: The RETS project has now completed most work on good practice collection, seminars, study visits and project promotion. The project was launched (3/2/10) by a conference in Serta, Portugal to over 190 participants, including the Portuguese secretary of State for Energy and Innovation. The first project results were then shown at the Sittard Geleen Intermediary Conference in the Netherlands (29/3/11), bringing together 146 delegates from the Limburg cross-border region.Over the project, experiences have been shared and good practices exchanged in 5 study visits:-Upper Rhine cross-border visit (27-28/04/10): Freiburg, DE (Vauban Quarter, Solar Info Center), Weinbourg (Photovoltaic farm), Soulz-sous-Forêts (Heat Mining E.E.I.G.) in FR-West Wales, UK (14-15/07/2010): BREEAM excellent exemplar buildings, Quiet Revolution wind turbine factory, seminar on non-governmental report "Zero Carbon Britain"-Sittard Geleen, NL (30-31/03/2011): Green Net project (Biomass plant, SABIC building, ORBIS),Kerkrade (Neighbourhood of Tomorrow), Heerlen (Mine Water project)-Pinhel, Portugal (4-6/07/11): Pinhel (Mini-hydroelectric Plant), Energy Optimisation System in Municipal Areas, Belmonte (Forest Biomass Plant)-Graz/Maribor (8-9/05/12): Graz (ICS- Internationalisation Center Styria, Güssing model), Maribor (City RES policy, electric car station).11 transnational seminars for local authorities have been organised in the partner regions:- Varese, Italy (9/7/10 and 13-14/10/10): promoting renewables and regional and provincial energy in a transnational context- Staffordshire, UK (22-24/02/11) on photovoltaic policy, public policies and planning, clusters, Community energy, funding streams, wind energy and controversy- Upper Rhine: Kaiserslautern (DE), Lauterbourg (FR), Strasbourg (FR) (10-12/5/11): public acceptance, economic development through RES, profitability analysis tools, energy-mix, biomass and training - Seminar Study visit to Solar city Linz, AT (12/5/11), seminar Ljubjana (10/11/11): RES opportunities, Maribor (14/12/11): EU funding and projects, Regional policies and RES regulations- Cardiff, Wales, UK (7/6/11): renewables within the educational sector- Bucharest, Romania (14-16/6/11): policies and regulation, role of local energy agencies, biomass, funding, training and solar energy- Sertã (7/7/11): RETS good practices, comunication and changing behaviours- Pezenas (27-28/09/11): local policies (Languedoc-Roussillon, DE, NL), use of RES for local authorities (solar energy, geothermal, use of waste, etc.), international cooperation - Sittard Geleen (14-16/11/11): EU and national policy and industry response at home and abroad, regional examples on RES and building a regional smart grid- Wales good practice tour (13-15/03/12): wind, community support, district heating, planning policy.- Vécses International RES education seminar (13/4/12): renewable in education. In addition to these inspiring visits and events, the partners have collected 55 renewable energy good practices from their regions. A selection will be compiled in a compendium to be published by the end of 2012. Project communication and access to knowledge through internet technologies is working well. The project wiki (www.rets-community.eu) is well integrated into daily project management and is used for collaboration between partners. The wiki was opened up to local authority members from outside the project in June 2012 giving them a privileged access to information developed by the project. The project website (www.rets-project.eu) is also used as a platform to promote the activities and results, including 42 good practices, 10 articles of which 5 are translated into partner languages, and 8 issues of the project newsletter "RETS Renewables Update". Links have also been created with other projects and networks on renewables such as IMEDER and RENREN.