Renewable Energies Workshop in Prague (CZ)

"Data Gathering on Renewable Energies for the New Member States and Candidate Countries", November 11-12, 2008

The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission has organised a workshop on “Data Gathering on Renewable Energies for New Member States and Candidate Countries” in Prague.  Among the 35 participants were experts from Spain, the UK, Germany, the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, the International Energy Agency and representatives of Eastern European States. The event focussed on policies, financial schemes and  analysis tools for the deployment of renewable energies.

WFC Policy Officer Axel Bree gave a presentation on the different design options for feed-in tariff legislations. By chosing the best suited policy law makers have to focus on long term planing and investment security. A representative of the International Energy Agency presented its new report on the deployment of RE. The EBRD reported about an upcoming program to help Eastern European countries to improve their policy systems.

The input from the Eastern European representatives showed that all countries have adopted certain policies to promote RE (mostly FITs), but that the share of renewable enrgy resources for electricity generation is – apart from large scale hydro – still minimal. Biggest potentials are in the areas of biomass, wind and geothermic, as well as solar in the Southern countries. Biggest problems were seen with regard to grid access.