New session of Renewable Energy Stakeholder’s Forum

USAID Macedonia Clean Energy Investment Project in collaboration with the Renewable Energy (RE) Association within the Chamber of Commerce organized last week the 8^th RE Stakeholders’ Forum.  The topics for this forum were selected due to the great interest they were expected to raise among the participants, especially the RE investors.

In the first panel of the Forum, Divna Anastasova from the Ministry of Transportation presented the changes in the urban planning and construction land legislation, which are of interest of RE investors, and provided practical advice on how to implement them in practice.  Afterwards, Melita Gochevska from the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning delivered presentation on the procedural questions related to the implementation of the obligations stemming from the concession agreements for waters for production of electricity with small hydro power plants.

In the second part of the Forum, the Project consultant Mr. Aleksandar Dedinec presented opportunities for new forms of financial support (subsidies) available for RE producers in the region that could be also introduced in Macedonia. While, Zoran Gorgievski from electricity transmission company MEPSO presented the opportunities for new methodology for integration of the preferential producers of RE in the electricity market.

Following the presentations at the Forum lively discussion developed among the investors and representatives from government institutions. The RE Stakeholder Forum is a mechanism for public private dialogue in the RE sector, started in 2013 which continues to be a venue for sharing information on the latest developments in the RE sector, discussing issues of interest of investors, and proposing solutions.  The next RE Forum will be held in Skopje in the first half of 2017.