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The independently acting Dutch Office for Renewable Energy (PDE) was founded in 1997 with the objective of actively promoting RES in the Netherlands, a task which is crucial to the achievement of the government's target of obtaining 10% of total energy consumption from renewable energy sources by the year 2020. One of the main roles of the PDE is to strengthen the economic network comprising the Dutch authorities and the business community. Among other activities, workshops and seminars are held to discuss bottlenecks arising from policy and legislation. The transfer of knowledge is the second pillar of the PDE's activities, and this takes place through the publication of general dissemination products, including a website and fact sheets giving information about successful example applications. Specific information tools have been developed for certain target groups, such as local and regional government and consumers. In the view of the PDE, to a large extent, the key for the success of RES lies in the symbiosis between potential investors and government, in particular at the provincial, regional and local level. Consequently, it developed the "Renewable Energy Process Approach" which provides lower tiers of government (provinces, regions, municipalities) with support for the development of well-structured renewable energy policies. |