Energy Community Secretariat : WB6 countries making progress in sustainability
The six Western Balkans (WB6) countries have achieved progress in a number of measures of the Sustainability Charter, but there is also room for improvement, the Energy Community Secretariat assessed in its “WB6 Sustainability Charter Monitoring Report”. The six Western Balkans countries, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, signed a Sustainability Charter […]
WB6 at over half way to power market integration
The Western Balkan Summit on July 12 in Trieste, Italy, may elevate the importance of creating a regional electricity market and to deliver on the commitments of both European Union member states and the six countries of the region, the Energy Community Secretariat said. The organization’s WB6 Electricity Monitoring Report notes governments took on responsibility […]
GIZ Transboundary Ecosystem Management project launch
The GIZ Open Regional Fund for South-East Europe – Biodiversity (ORF-BD) officially launched its Transboundary Ecosystem Management (TEM) project on March 27 in Tirana. It is financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The event brought together the Albanian Minister of Environment, Lefter Koka, the Macedonian (FYR) Minister for Environment […]
GIZ provides significant support to SEE countries on their EU integration path
By: Jasna Sekulović, Project Manager and Emina Durmo, Advisor for PR, Reporting and Gender Equality – GIZ project Open Regional Fund for Southeast Europe – Energy efficiency The project Strengthening Capacities for Implementing the National Energy Efficiency Action Plan Cycle, implemented by GIZ ORF-EE, has successfully supported partner countries of SEE in fulfilling their obligations under the EU legislative framework. […]
Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro and Romania reach EU 2020 renewable energy goals
Four countries from the Balkan region – Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro and Romania – reached their national targets for the share of renewable energy in total consumption by 2020, according to latest Eurostat data for 2015. Share of energy from renewable sources in final consumption in Romania reached 24.8 percent, achieving the country’s EU 2020 target, which […]
Three new signatories join WB6 initiative for energy market integration
Three new signatories have joined the Western Balkan Six (WB6) regional electricity market integration initiative, Energy Community announced. The Romanian transmission system operator CNTEE Transelectrica SA, the Greek transmission system operator IPTO SA and the Greek market operator LAGIE SA have signed the Energy Community’s Western Balkan 6 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on regional electricity […]
Power production and distribution companies in the Balkan region – governments still in charge
By Vladimir Spasić, energy journalist and analyst It is not just that the governments in the Balkan region do not consider selling their power utilities, but they covet buying what they sold twenty years ago, or at least buying from their neighbors. This can be illustrated by the announcement of Serbian power utility Eletkroprivreda Srbije (EPS) […]
European demand for solar power decreased by 21 percent in 2016
European demand for solar power decreased by over 21 percent to 6.7 GW in 2016, according to the market research conducted by SolarPower Europe. At the same time, global solar installations grew by around 50 percent to an all-time record number of 76.2 GW. “The European solar industry is ready to take a larger share […]
