Renewable energy coordination meeting focuses on overcoming challenges for renewables uptake in Energy Community
29 Apr 2015
The two-day event “Progress in the Promotion of Renewable Energy in the European Community” took stock of the state of play of implementing the Renewable Energy Directive in the Energy Community Contracting Parties and assessed how existing barriers to the uptake of renewables could be overcome. One of the underlying messages was that renewables are a necessity not just in terms of mitigating climate change and ensuring sustainable growth, but also diversifying the energy mix and contributing to the security of energy supply by reducing dependence on external energy sources. “It is high time to bring back the focus on renewables and regain the momentum lost,” meeting participants heard.
The Energy Community Contracting Parties are in general late in the implementation of the Renewable Energy Directive requirements and also in terms of meeting the trajectories to reach their binding national renewables targets by 2020. Three Contracting Parties have failed to submit their National Renewable Energy Action Plans to date. Implementing the 10 percent biofuels in transport target is severely lagging behind. As rules on the sustainability criteria for biofuels have not been adopted, even the existing very small biofuels consumption can not count towards a country’s target. The first drafts of the necessary sustainability mechanisms are now under preparation by several Contracting Parties, following targeted assistance by the Energy Community Secretariat. Speakers underlined the need to improve the accuracy of statistical information on renewables in order to precisely track the implementation of the national targets.
Participants heard that a solid legal framework with sustainable and predictable support schemes and transparent and simplified administrative procedures are a prerequisite for attracting investors and reducing the cost of capital for the renewable energy projects. The need to prepare for the transition to more market based support schemes, i.e. feed-in premiums and tenders, once a functioning energy market is in place was highlighted. The challenges related to the integration of renewables into the grids and system operation were also tackled. Participants shared best practice examples in the European Union as well as the Energy Community Contracting Parties, including an EU-financed biomass project in Moldova and biomass projects in Austria implemented via energy cooperatives, which could serve as models for other Contracting Parties.