Oil company OMV to build Austria’s largest PV plant

Vienna-based oil and gas company OMV and Austria’s power producer Verbund have signed memoranda of understanding (MoUs) which envisage the construction of Austria’s largest photovoltaic (PV) plant. The focus of the strategic partnership is on evaluating and implementing power generation, power storage, and Power-to-X facilities, in order to promote self-sufficiency at OMV sites, preferably with […]

Protests against hydropower planned across Balkans from July 6-16

Environmental activists and civil society organizations (CSOs) from across the Balkans are organizing protests under the slogan “Our rivers – No DAMage!” in July over hydropower projects threatening to leave local populations without homes, arable lands, drinking water, and irrigation supply, or the landscape they have enjoyed for generations. The protests against hydropower plants (HPPs) […]

ENTSO-E gets new leadership team

A newly elected team of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) will be led by Herve Laffaye, Deputy CEO of RTE (Reseau de Transport d’Electricite), the French transmission system operator (TSO). The new ENTSO-E leadership team took office on June 28. Laffaye is President of the ENTSO-E Assembly while the Vice-President […]

Regional project Renewable Energy Policy Consensus – REPCONS kicks off

The regional project Renewable Energy Policy Consensus REPCONS has been officially launched in a meeting held in Belgrade today. The project financed by the European Climate Foundation has gathered experts and civil society organizations from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro with the aim of facilitating energy transition through greater utilization of renewable energy sources. […]

Energy Community, GIZ ORF-EE cooperation produces guidance on consolidation of climate and energy planning

The Energy Community Secretariat has published the paper “Consolidation of climate planning processes in the Energy Community Contracting Parties”, which provides the Contracting Parties with a concise and simple guidance on how they could consolidate their multiple climate change and energy planning processes and international obligations into one single process, ensuring efficiency and alignment. The […]

EU NECPs: Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Cyprus, others need to step up renewables ambition

The European Commission has released an assessment of the EU member states’ first-ever draft integrated national energy and climate plans (NECPs), urging them to step up ambition to implement the Paris Agreement and reach the agreed EU 2030 energy and climate targets. The European Commission’s assessment is that EU member states’ draft integrated national energy […]

BiH, Kosovo*, Serbia pay EUR 444 million in coal subsidies, EUR 147 million for renewables – report

The three most coal-intensive Energy Community (EnC) Contracting Parties – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, and Serbia – paid a total of EUR 444 million in direct subsidies to coal, while their incentives for production from renewables reached EUR 147 million during the period 2015-2017. The total sum of direct subsidies in all Contracting Parties, including […]