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Sidebar 1. Regional Spotlight: South East Europe, Caucasus, Russian Federation and Central Asia
Over the past decade, 17 countriesi in South East and Eastern
Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, as well as the Russian
Federation – totalling over 300 million inhabitants – have started to
leverage their considerable renewable energy potentials. Policies in
most, but not all, of these countries have been driven by concerns
about energy security and access to reliable, affordable, sustainable
and modern energy. Moreover, numerous initiatives have been
launched to promote energy efficiency improvementsii. It is worth
noting, however, that renewable energy and efficiency initiatives in
many of these countries were hampered by the impacts of the 2009
financial crisis on energy consumption and investments.
The economy-wide share of renewable energy used in these
countries differs widely, ranging from 0% in Turkmenistan to 58%
in Tajikistan (both based on 2012 data), with most countries in
the 1-20% range. Where the shares are relatively high, this is due
almost entirely to use of hydropower and/or biomass, with traditional
use of biomass (for heating) still playing a significant role in
several countries. In the power sector, Albania, Kyrgyzstan and
Tajikistan rely almost exclusively on hydropower, whereas Georgia
and Montenegro generate more than half of their electricity with
hydropower. The Russian Federation produces more electricity
from hydropower than any other country in the region, but hydropower’s
share of total generation is lower than that in some other
countries due to the scale of the Russian Federation's total output.
Deployment of other renewable energy technologies for power
generation in the region is nascent, with significant capacity only
in Ukraine (mostly solar PV and onshore wind). However, sizable
solar PV and onshore wind potential exists throughout the region,
and large biomass resources exist in South East Europe, Eastern
Europe and the Russian Federation. The potential for CSP and
geothermal power (using high-temperature resources) is limited
to a few areas, primarily in the Russian Federation.
The penetration of modern renewable technologies for heating
and cooling is modest. While solar water heating could be
deployed economically in all 17 countries, installations exist in
only a few. The potential for biomass-based heat also is considerable,
particularly through existing district heating networks.
Despite the existence of biofuels targets (for heat and transport)
in several countries, liquid biofuel production capacity currently
is found only in Belarus (biodiesel), the former Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia (biodiesel) and Ukraine (ethanol).
On the policy front, some progress has been made in support of
renewable energy and energy efficiency. For example, all countries
but Turkmenistan have strategies outlining their priorities in
at least one renewable energy technology, and all but Georgia
and Turkmenistan have adopted renewable energy targets.
Most support policies in the region exist in the power sector,
where feed-in tariffs are the most commonly used (in 12 countries),
followed by tendering. Utility obligations and net metering
have been adopted in four countries each. Montenegro is the only
country among the 17 that has policies to support renewable heating
and cooling. Although most renewable energy support policies
in the region have been enacted at the national level, an increasing
number of city and local governments are promoting renewable
energy.
All 17 countries except Turkmenistan also have enacted regulatory
policies to advance energy efficiency – most commonly in the building
sector (including lighting and appliances), followed by transport
and industry – and most have established efficiency targets. All but
four countries have national energy efficiency awareness campaigns.
Despite these efforts, the 17 countries continue to represent only
a small share – just 0.5% (USD 0.9 billion) in 2014 – of the world’s
total investment in renewable power capacity (not including
hydropower >50 MW) and fuels. Investment in the region saw
some positive developments during 2008-2011, driven by growth
in Eastern Europe, followed by decline in 2013 and 2014. Numbers
and trends might be quite different when large-scale hydropower
(>50 MW) is included, but good data are not available.
From a global perspective, non-hydro renewable energy developments
in the region remain marginal. Despite the great diversity
in population size and economic, social and political characteristics,
the energy systems of these countries all were developed
in a similar manner, and renewables and energy efficiency face
some common challenges across the region. These include
considerable regulatory and investment barriers, as well as lack
of awareness about renewable energy and energy efficiency. In
many cases, legal frameworks are not considered stable and
transparent enough to trigger large-scale private investment.
Further, market entry remains challenging in countries that have
not fully liberalised their energy markets. Large subsidies for fossil
fuels and their abundance in some countries in the region continue
to put renewable energy and energy efficiency projects at
an economic disadvantage. Furthermore, entrenched interests in
conventional energy resources in many countries represent a significant
barrier to effective legislation and policy implementation.
Renewables and efficiency have advanced slowly in most of these
countries over the past decade, and there is significant room for
improvement. Across the region, policy implementation at all levels
is hampered by the complexities of enforcing and monitoring
the actions set out in supporting legislation, and local regulations
often lack transparency and are unstable and inconsistent. The
lack or incompleteness of statistical data on final energy production
and use impedes the implementation of more-precise monitoring
measures, as well as new investment in the region. In this
regard, a critical look by legislators at the existing legal frameworks
is necessary, in order to investigate if these structures create the
stable investment conditions required by private investors.
Additional investment is required to enable the region to fully
realise its renewable potential, particularly for efficient and sustainable
heating, and for upgrades to ageing energy infrastructure.
The need to replace ageing infrastructure also presents an
opportunity to better integrate renewable energy and improve
energy efficiency across the region’s economies.
Source: See endnote 50 for this chapter.
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i Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Montenegro, the Russian Federation, Serbia,
Tajikistan, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
ii The key messages of this sidebar are derived from REN21, UNECE Renewable Energy Status Report (Paris: December 2015), http://www.ren21.net/
regional. Helpful illustrations of the content of this sidebar can be found in Figures 2, 5 and 13 and in Table 9.
RENEWABLES 2016 · GLOBAL STATUS REPORT
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