At the European level, it will work with three sectoral groups, covering rational use of energy, renewable energy sources, and fossil fuel technologies, with the OPETs supported by experts on each of these sectors. The OPETs will supply information on innovative energy technologies and on EU energy programmes, and will develop regional and sectoral strategies for the introduction of these new technologies. Their role will be to provide end users with easy access to innovative energy technologies. In renewing the OPET network, the Innovation Programme stressed the importance of active collaboration with market players. It will judge the network's success by the tangible and demonstrable results it achieves in terms of technology take-up, economic savings, and energy consumption reductions.
Industries thrive on the percolation of new techniques, processes, materials and equipment.
Too often, though, a smaller company which could significantly improve its competitiveness by adopting a particular new technology fails to identify, acquire or finance the exploitation of that technology. Or it may fail to spot a market opportunity for a new technology which it has developed itself. With the aim of improving the competitiveness of Europe's SMEs, the Commission will support a number of new transnational networks and services between now and the end of the century. The technologies concerned range from those involved in the scale-up from batch to continuous processing to those required for compliance with new environmental regulation. These services are new at national level, but from the outset they will also have a transnational dimension.