The 2nd edition of Central European Day of Energy (CEDE) will focus on “New technologies driving the energy transition in Central Europe”, 11th of December, Brussels. As a preparation step to this event, CEEP gathered in this report a series of innovation projects and opinions on the energy transition in the CEE region.
First thing first, you can find out more about CEDE and register following the link:www.ceep.be/cede2017. The event is co-organised by CEEP and DG Energy, with the support of the International Visegrad Fund.
As a co-organiser, DG Energy’s Director of Energy Policy, Megan Richards, discusses the importance of digital in establishing a fully functioning Energy Union and achieving the Digital Single Market. In his annual State of the Union address in September 2017, President Juncker underlined the importance of making European industries stronger through innovation, digitalisation and decarbonisation.
MEP Jerzy Buzek argues in its most recent report “Accelerating Clean Energy Innovation”, published mid-September, that from renewables to clean coal technologies, all sources should be used in the most efficient and environmentally sustainable way, to ensure our energy independence and thus security.
The lawyers from Wardynski&Partners try to clarify what’s the exact definition of “innovation”, as used in EU’ political programmes, legal documents and acts. Intuitively, one can understand what the word means, but when checking European programmes, documents or legal acts, things get blurry.
This publication wouldn’t have been complete without covering the Innovation Fund and its design. The legislative proposal to revise the EU ETS Directive sets forth the Innovation Fund (IF), whose aim is to support demonstration projects of innovative renewable energy, environmentally safe carbon capture, storage and use (CCS/CCU), energy storage and low-carbon innovation in energy intensive industry. According to the EC’s proposal, at least 400 million allowances should be reserved from 2021 onwards for this purpose. PGE’s chief specialist covers it in her contribution.
If we have a well-functioning spot oil market, why should trading biomass fuel be different? That’s the trigger question asked by EPSO-G’s CEO, Lithuania, while explaining that this was the basic idea behind Lithuania’s biofuel spot exchange BALTPOOL, part of the EPSO-G group. It is designed to offer local market participants a simple yet handy tool to find out biomass market prices and buy wood chips and pellets of a required quality right away.
The energy transition is not only about innovation and progress, but also about tectonic shifts that come with challenges to tackle. PSE’s R&D Director, explains that in Poland, the share of stochastically operating Renewable Energy Sources (RES) connected at the DSO level, increased by almost 40% in terms of total capacity last year. This substantial shift towards decentralised generation brought new challenges for balancing the electricity system. System operators, responsible for maintaining grid’s stability and operational security, are now facing the need to redefine their relations with third parties – to forge close, real-time cooperation.
Remember about CCU? Arcelor Mittal’s experts present the most important benefits of application of CCU technology (Carbon Capture and Utilisation or Carbon Capture and Reuse). It should provide a much needed basis for further discussion on required future developments of legislation, both at EU as well as national level.
If electromobility is your area of interest, we can only recommend you the three articles that cover the topic, with a special focus on Visegrad countries, that slowly wake up to this new electrification trend, and even more particularly on Slovakia, the largest producer of cars per capita in the world since 2007, and Poland, with Michał Kurtyka, Undersecretary of State. Ministry of Energy of Poland, presenting the country's Electromobility Development Plan.
Thanks to our partners for the Central European Day of Energy event, you can read in this edition about the energy transition initiatives and processes in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, and already mentioned Poland and Slovakia.