REPUTE promotes innovation andengagement in the efficient use of energyin public transport by means ofinformation provision, stimulation ofenterprise and behaviour change, andpolicy change recommendations.

REPUTE favorise l’innovation etl’efficacité énergétique dans lestransports publics par l’information, lastimulation des entreprises et deschangements de comportements et parl'élaboration de recommandations pourles politiques.

REPUTE promueve la innovación y elcompromiso en relación al uso eficientede la energía en el transporte público através de una mejor información, unamayor motivación de las empresas, unamodificación de los hábitos de uso yrecomendaciones de políticas de apoyo.

REPUTE promove a inovação e ocompromisso no uso eficiente de energiaem transportes públicos, através dofornecimento de informação, estimulaçãode investimento e mudança decomportamentos, e recomendações dealterações políticas.

Cuireann REPUTE chun cinn nuálachtagus rannpháirtíocht maidir le h-úsáidéifeactach fuinnimh in iompar poiblí tríeolas a chur ar fail, spreagadhfiontraíochta agus athrú iompair, inaonacht le moltaí faoi athrú beartais.

The Vision of REPUTE

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Newsletter June 2014

What is REPUTE?REPUTE - Renewable Energy Public Transport Enterprise - is a project funded underthe Atlantic Area Transnational programme which is aimed at promoting the use ofrenewable energy and energy efficiency in public transport. The project aims to effectchange at policy and personal level. A group of seven partners and three associatepartners will work together over an eighteen month period to become a catalyst for adynamic and innovative application of renewable energy to the public transport sector.

During the course of the project a state of the art guide on the use of renewabletechnologies in public transport will be published. A workshop will be held in eachparticipating region engaging national, regional and local Government. There will betwo pilot projects integrating state-of-the-art renewable technologies with thedevelopment of personal travel plans. The project will close with a conference tour inJune 2015, taking in each of the partner regions and sharing the learning of theproject with policy makers, transport professionals and the general public.

ContactsPartner MeetingsREPUTE PartnersREPUTE Regions

INSIDE

Northern Ireland • Republic of Ireland • Spain • Great Britain • France • Portugal

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The Atlantic Regions of the European Unioncontain many sparsely populated andremote areas. Compared to the morepopulous areas, Atlantic communities canbe poorly served by public transport andoften have higher than average car use. Fora member of the public in a remote region,access to public transport can be a majorchallenge as its provision is not seen asbeing economically viable. There is a lack ofinformation about what transport optionsare available.

The REPUTE approach is to look at ways ofproviding energy efficient affordabletransport in the region as well as providingquality information to people so that it iseasier for them to make better choicesabout how to move around. The car is kingin many of these areas, not because peoplelike driving any more than they do in moredensely populated regions, but becausepeople often don’t have any choice. The aimsof REPUTE are to advance solutions to thisproblem for the good of both the transportuser and the regional economy. In addition,the project aims to reduce the harmful effectsof personal mobility on the environment.

In terms of the take up of renewables theregions participating in REPUTE sharesimilar characteristics.

Northern IrelandIn Northern Ireland there is a very high rateof car usage by people travelling to work.This is partly due to the largely dispersedrural population but also to the fact that bususage has not seen any real increase since2008. In the city of Belfast, however, therehave been significant increases; 20,000extra bus journeys were taken in May 2012compared with May 2013. The successful‘Belfast on the Move’ scheme hasintroduced a number of new bus and cycleroutes around the city. These positive trendsin Belfast City are not seen elsewherethroughout Northern Ireland, however,where 80% of commuters use either a caror a van.

Renewable Energy and the Atlantic AreaFranceThe issue of increasing urban sprawl iscreating challenges for public transport inFrance. Over the past decade there aregreater numbers of people travelling longerdistances.

Public Transport is overseen by LocalTransport Authorities (LTA) and operated byeither private companies or companiescontrolled by the LTA. Local government -through the LTAs – sets the parameters fortransportation and provides subsidies, whilethe operators run the service.

The main policy developments onsustainable transport are the planneddevelopment of a national multi modaljourney planner, and the recent introductionof a national cycling plan. There are alsoplans by the state-owned transportcompany RAPT to replace its entire busfleet with electric buses by 2025.

SpainTransport is responsible for almost 40% ofenergy consumption in Spain and roadusers make up almost 80% of this. In recentyears there has been an increase in privatecar use, with a fall of over 5% in publictransport use. There is a clear need tostimulate greater use of public transport. Themost cost effective and efficient method ofachieving this is by encouraging behaviouralchange and providing information to thepublic, so that the full range of publictransport modes are optimised.

Republic of IrelandIreland has one of the highest rates of caruse and lowest usage of public transport inthe EU. Almost 70% of people use their carevery day, whereas only 8% of people usepublic transport once a day. Ireland has alarge dispersed rural population and there islimited availability of public transport insome parts of the country.

‘Smarter Travel’, the Governments policy fora sustainable transport future, envisages aswitch to bicycles and walking as the mosteffective way to reduce car dependency.

Great BritainGreat Britain has a dense and variedtransport network. Despite this, private caruse remains the most popular mode oftravel and has risen significantly comparedto other modes over the last number ofdecades. Car travel also remains thecheapest option, having risen less than theRetail Index Price each year. Price rises inpublic transport by contrast have risenfaster than the cost of living over the last tenyears.

PortugalIn Portugal, in recent years there has beena rise in the number of bike share schemes,however none of these are using electricbikes. The pilot project set for Portugal aspart of REPUTE will use solar poweredelectric bikes.

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Newsletter June 2014

REPUTE Partners

Action RenewablesThe project co-ordinator is Action Renewables. Based in Belfast but operating throughout EuropeAction Renewables facilitate, educate and advise public and private bodies on renewable energy.

Widely recognised as the leading authority on renewables in Northern Ireland, they supportcommercial renewable energy development. Action Renewables offer quality assurance to therenewable energy industry and provide information and advice to Governments.

Comunidade Intermunicipal do Oeste (OESTE CIM)OESTE CIM is a public, collective organisation in Portugal representing the common interests of themember municipalities. Oeste CIM has considerable experience of working on EU projects.

Foundacion Asturias Energy Foundation (FAEN)FAEN is the Regional Energy Agency of the Principality of Asturias (Spain). It is a non-profitorganisation that works to promote and develop activities related to research, technical developmentand training. FAEN works on different activities related to energy, such as energy planning, energyaudits, training, counselling and advice, technological energy research and financial aid on energyprojects

FAEN has collaborated on different IEE and Atlantic Area projects related to the transport sector.

Oxford Brookes UniversityOxford Brookes University occupies a strong position in automotive and motorsports engineering education.The Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mathematical Sciences provides a range of professionallyaccredited bachelor’s and master’s programmes. Our focus is to provide world class, high quality teachingand applied research.

The Sustainable Vehicle Engineering Centre (SVEC) is driving innovation to create effective, affordable,energy-and resource-efficient transport. SVEC participates in leading edge projects such as electric vehicletrials (as BMW’s research partner in the MINI-E project), advanced engine design, vehicle light-weighting,optimization of bus routes and e-mobility business cases.

EIGSIEIGSI is a multi-disciplinary engineering school located in La Rochelle (France)and Casablanca (Morocco). It specialises in three main disciplines; education,research and professional training. EIGSI’s research work is focused onrenewable energies and coastal protection and on intelligent and integratedmobility. Currently the main research work deals with city logistics, Informationsystems for mobility, vehicle testing and battery experimentation.

Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT)LIT is an award winning third level education institute based in the Mid-West Region of Ireland. TheInstitute’s Development Unit actively engages with a wide range of individuals and organisationsneeding support.

Using the core expertise of LIT, its teaching staff, and the physical resources of the Institute the collegecontributes to national and international projects in science and technology, renewable and sustainableenergy and community development.

Southwest College The InnoTech Centre at South West College provides technology and R&D support to help companiesand entrepreneurs capitalise on innovative ideas – supporting over 250 companies on an annual basis.The Collage offers a wide portfolio of training in renewable energy and sustainable technologies.

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Newsletter June 2014

PartnerMeetings

Partner URL Contact E-mailAction Renewables www.actionrenewables.co.uk Terry Waugh Terry.Waugh@actionrenewables.co.uk

South West Collage www.swc.ac.uk Shirley Patterson shirley.patterson@swc.ac.uk

EIGSI www.eigsi.fr Véronique Seel veronique.seel@eigsi.fr

Fundación Asturiana de la Energía www.faen.es Maria J. Rodriguez miren@faen.es

Limerick Institute of Technology www.lit.ie Ciaran Lynch ciran.lynch@lit.ie

Comunidade Intermunicipal do Oeste www.oestecim.pt Susana Gustavo susana.gustavo@oestecim.pt

Oxford Brookes University www.brookes.ac.uk Denise Morrey dmorrey@brookes.ac.uk

Contacts

Associate Partner URL Contact E-mailMid West Regional Authority www.mwra.ie Lisa Ruttle lruttle@mwra.ie

Tipperary Co. Council www.tipperarycoco.ie Sinead Carr sineadcarr@tipperarycoco.ie

https://twitter.com/REPUTE_EU https://www.facebook.com/REPUTEeuWebsite (coming soon): www.Repute.ie

The first partner meeting for REPUTE tookplace on the 19th of February 2014. Hostedby EIGSI, the conference was held in LaRochelle on Frances’ western seaboard.This beautiful city, known as La VilleBlanche (the White City), proved to be a topclass location for a kick off meeting.

The meeting, which was timed to coincidewith the 2nd Forum of InterregionalMobility,was an excellent opportunity for thepartners to develop a shared work plan.One of the main outcomes of this meetingwas the idea of using the pilot projects asa form marketplace stimulation, through thedevelopment of personal travel planningand the provision of access to renewablemodes of transport such as electric bikes.

At a second partner meeting in Thurles,Ireland – hosted by LIT – the pilot ideas werefurther developed. Working with Hi-Trans,the Scottish pilot will see the installation ofsolar powered transport information signs,along with personal travel planning. InPortugal personalised travel planning will beused to promote the use of electric bicycles.

Another development at the partnermeetings was the idea of doing aconference tour. This plan developed byEigsi’s will see the partners travel togetheron a bus powered by renewable energy toeach of the regions, where they will deliverthe learning from the project. Policy makerstransport professionals and otherstakeholders will join us on board.

The conferences in Scotland, Ireland,France, Spain and Portugal and the bustour will be a fantastic platform for spreadingthe news about the urgent need to changeour transport policies and decisions, to onesthat are less harmful to our environmentand quality of life. More details will beavailable on our website which is comingsoon.

Other initiatives of the project include astate of the art guide on renewableenergy by Oxford Brookes University,workshops developed by FAEN held in allpartner countries later this year and aseries of DVDs produced by LIT.