Energy Efficiency Market Formation in South-Eastern Europe
Countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Turkey, and United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) (pursuant to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244) – Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) members.
Duration: 18 months
Estimated budget: $500,000
Implementing Agencies: Network of Associations of Local Authorities of South-Eastern Europe (NALAS), the Centre for Energy Efficiency EnEffect, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
Background: South-East European countries are on the road to rebuilding their energy systems. The energy policy objectives now being pursued in most of the South-East European countries include building sustainable, reliable and efficient energy sectors, as well as establishing energy use patterns that support recovery and development. This stronger alignment of goals and principles has facilitated the launch of energy sector reforms, including restructuring of state energy companies, adoption of new regulatory frameworks, and implementation of policies to enhance energy efficiency. However, energy sector reforms are still at their early or intermediate stages and are particularly challenging because of the need to link them with the goals for high energy efficiency and low environmental impact. Several barriers persist and hinder the formation of energy efficiency markets.
Brief Description: The project would address some of the problems described above by drawing upon lessons learned from experience in implementation of other subprojects of the EE21 Project related to energy efficiency investments. The project would focus on capacity building and awareness raising activities for the energy efficiency market formation. An important part of the project is establishment of the NALAS Energy Efficiency Knowledge Centre.
Objective: This project is designed to promote the formation of energy efficiency markets in participating countries, in which cost-effective investment projects resulting in greenhouse gas emissions reductions can be identified, developed, financed and implemented by local teams in municipalities and energy utilities. Special emphasis is put on encouraging the bottom-up approach.
Specific Objectives:
(a) Development of skills and capacities of the public sector at the local level to identify, develop and implement energy efficiency and renewable energy investment projects;
(b) Provision of assistance to municipal authorities and national administrations to introduce economic, institutional and regulatory reforms needed to support these investments, based on integrated local (municipal) energy planning and programming;
(c) Support of the regional networking between local institutions for value-added information transfers on financing energy efficiency projects and training, contributing to the regional cooperation on energy efficiency development.
Main Activities:
(a) Establishment of the NALAS Energy Efficiency Knowledge Centre which will collect existing knowledge available in the region, assess needs, and define future actions;
(b) Capacity building seminars to raise awareness of local authorities and business sector regarding energy efficiency and renewable energy issues;
(c) Capacity building seminars on financing energy efficiency investment projects to create local expertise in preparing bankable proposals;
(d) Promoting the networking concept as a proven instrument for best practices exchange and dissemination of experience and know-how;
(e) Assisting municipalities in strengthening energy efficiency and renewable energy policies by introducing economic, institutional and regulatory reforms needed to support investments in energy efficiency projects.
Budget: Partial funding for the project is available through the support of GTZ (Germany) for establishment of the NALAS Energy Efficiency Knowledge Centre. Additional funding is needed to fully accomplish the objectives of the project and will be sought from potential supporting institutions, such as donor governments, international organizations, and public and private sector companies.
