For the last two decades, the AGIT fair is beeing seen as a trendsetter and pioneer in the field of geographic information. This year, AGIT took place from the 7th to the 9th July at the University in Salzburg invited international interested parties. The fair combined applied symposium and practical panel exhibition presenting trends and innovation for the geographical information community. At AGIT Michael presented the BEn apporach using open source GIS and utilising open source data. Topics covering energy related questions, especially on renewable energy were discussed and presented. The BEN poster presentation could add vital input to this discussion, especially since there is a growing awareness of integrating bio energy into energy planning processes.

Within the BEn-project the open source GIS systems and freely available data are utilised to build the online regional bioenergy registers for the project model regions.

At OSGIS 2010 Kasia, who runs the BEn project in the NE, presented a poster explaining open source GIS implementation in BEn: "Fill INSPIRE with life, with all its challenges! Supporting sustainable bioenergy development in European regions". The poster generated a lot of interest and was well received.

Interesting discussions were carried out during the conference and accompanying workshops. There is definitely a growing interest in open source GIS among scientific institutions and businesses operating in the geoinformation sector, as when skillfully used the open systems (free of charge) prove to be powerful and flexible tools. For more information see www.OSGeo.org. 

After the project discussion, an introduction to the region around Newcastle was given. Besides and innovative hotel, the Battlesteads country Inn & Restaurant, which features and innovative woodchip burning biomass boiler supplying heating and hot water to the entire hotel and greenhouses using sustainable fuel from forestry only 1 mile away, also a wood flooring and wood materials plant in Hexham was visited. The provider of the wood material plant, Egger company, is comitted to sustainable use of natural resources. Wood residues and recylced wood that cannot be used in the production is utilised as thermal fuel in their own biomass power plants. The tour was completed with a visit to the North Energy offices, one of the longest established and most experienced energy and sustainability consultancies in the UK. Apart from technical discussions, an energetic informal exchange among the BEn partners took place, enjoying the cosiness and hospitality of British countrylife and the lovely scenery of Hexham. 

The meeting was an interesting opportunity to learn about bioenergy-related activities in Europe. For BEn this conference was helpful to gather further information on the activities of other projects, especially those related to GIS, biomass potentials calculations and sustainability indicators. Various approaches of different methods which could also be useful for BEn were discussed and collaboration was encouraged.

We would like to thank the EACI for offering the possibility to take part in this meeting.

• in English language for all project regions 
• in 4 national languages for the relevant regions respectively 

We hope that you will find this piece of work interesting and helpful for your biomass related activities. Within project BEn we will use it as one of the information sources and the next step towards development of the regional biomass master plans.  

The environmentally friendly Rural Centre of Ecotourism features a couple of different ecologically sound applications such as combined heat production (CHP) on the basis of biomass and solar thermal energy generation, including a biological water purification installation. The visit included also a wood chip heating system for district heating in Łąck and a straw heating plant for the generation of vapour for a bioethanol plant in Trebki. At the end of the tour, the BEn team had the possibility to learn more about the work of the Ecological Cultural Association ZIARNO in Grzybow.

On the second day of the meeting, the results established on the first day were discussed in more detail, and tailored working topics were elaborated.

The meeting was held in an enchanting and sound setting near Łąck which had an inspiring and positive influence on the working atmosphere.

The next project meeting is going to be held in North-East England in January 2010 and will focus, among other topics, on the presentation of a first prototype of the energy register.

In autumn this year, the second regional network meetings in the model regions (Umbria, Emscher-Lippe, North-East England Gostynin Lake district) are on the schedule.