newsletter #07June 2015 |
MED-DESIRE MEDiterranean DEvelopment of Support schemes for solar Initiatives and Renewable Energies ENPI CBC MED - Priority 2 - Topic 3 - Solar energy |
Editorial |
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Energy transition in Tunisia |
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To face the continual increase in oil demand in the international market over the last few years, coupled with the stabilization of national hydrocarbon resources and the growth in the national demand of energy, since 2000 the energy balance in Tunisia has been characterized by an energy production deficit, Tunisia has made considerable efforts, for three decades, in energy conservation which led to a significant decline in primary energy intensity.
However, despite these efforts, the energy system faces major challenges today related to security of energy supply and economic sustainability.
To overcome these barriers, Tunisian authorities have committed in an energy transition process based on reinforcing its energy conservation policy.
Update on MED-DESIRE project |
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7th TSC meeting in Byblos - Lebanon |
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The seventh MED-DESIRE Technical & Scientific Committee meeting was organized by the Lebanese Centre for Energy Conservation (LCEC) in Byblos-Lebanon on May 21 and 22, 2015, with the support of the Coordinator Puglia Region and its implementing agency ARTI.
The Technical & Scientific Committee meeting was devoted to revise the progress of the technical activities and to analyze the state of the art of communication, capitalization and awareness raising activities.
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Consultation meeting with the municipalities in Tyre - Lebanon |
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A consultation meeting with the municipalities on "Implementation of Solar Ordinances" was held on May 9th, 2015 in Tyre with the representatives from different municipalities, NGOs, experts and media networks. This event was a continuity of a series of meetings with different municipalities in Tyre district that aimed at introducing MED-DESIRE and "testing the waters" of implementing such solar ordinances.
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Online the Financial Support Mechanisms report |
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The report "Financial support mechanisms for distributed solar technologies and energy efficiency deployment in Mediterranean countries" has been released by the Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea and it is available for download on MED DESIRE website, both in full version and as executive summary.
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The 6th project meeting in Alexandria - Egypt |
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The New and Renewable Energy Agency (NREA), with the support of the Coordinator Puglia Region and its implementing agency ARTI, organized the sixth MED-DESIRE Technical & Scientific Committee meeting in Alexandria (Egypt) on February 23 and 24, 2015.
The TSC was focused on the progress of the technical activities, while the fifth Steering Committee meeting was focused on the preparation of the Interim Report.
Capitalization activities |
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After the Capitalization Event in Naples: perspective & results |
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The 10th of April, MED-DESIRE took part in EnergyMed, the annual Conference Exhibition on Renewable Sources and Energy Efficiency, with the Capitalization Event "The role of the renewable energy sources in the Mediterranean Region: from buzz to action" promoted by the Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea connecting more than 100 participants (including professionals and companies coming from the energy sector).
The initiative, composed by two sessions, involved institutional representatives, international actors, scientific and technical experts, stakeholders and business sector representatives from Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia and Italy.
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MED-DESIRE at MEDENER conference in Naples: the key role of qualification/certification laboratories for creating a self-consistent solar energy market |
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Accredited testing laboratories use standardized test procedures to certify the quality, safety and reliability of solar energy components/systems.
By making available the certification of products, they play a central role in breaking down trade barriers, fostering the deployment of solar energy technologies and the creation of a self-consistent market.
These facilities can support policy makers by providing quality reference standards to manage effective incentive programs. They can sustain local industries by delivering an unbiased evaluation of quality and performance of their products. They also protect the interests of consumers, by ensuring the effectiveness of their investments.
Awareness raising activities |
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Awareness raising activities for students in EGYPT |
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NREA organized a public awareness raising campaign for school students to acquaint them with advantages of renewables and energy efficiency. The event was held on the 26th of April in Al-Azhar Conference Centre.
More than ninety students participated in such event. They learned how renewable energy is a clean source that will never affect our climate and won't lead to toxic air pollution. Moreover, simple information and instructions about saving energy in our daily life have been conveyed to them. Some contests were organized between the schools basing on the displayed videos as there were given questions related to what they saw and intertwined with what they study at their school.
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Majorana High Schools wins the MED-DESIRE Award |
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Eduardo Antelmi, Francesco Capriati, Nicholas Gernone and Francesco Turchiano from Majorana High School (Bari - Italy) are the authors of "Posidonia Oceanica_Unexpected Resource", the winning video of the MED-DESIRE Award for the best video on sustainable energy.
The competition, organized by ARTI, was addressed to young people and it was based on videos expressing an idea or an innovative project. Only 5 videos over 15 (4 on sustainable energy) reached the final, held on May 21 within the Innovation Festival. The jury rewarded two videos: "Solar car", realized by the Fermi High School and "Posidonia Oceanica_ Unexpected Resource" realized by Majorana High School, winner of the MED-DESIRE special mention.
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MED-DESIRE energy efficiency labs in Apulian high schools |
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Energy efficiency, renewables and comfort are the topics of the MED-DESIRE energy efficiency labs, organized by ARTI and ENEA in the Apulian high schools within MED-DESIRE project.
Starting from May 7, the high schools involved in the initiative are being guided by ENEA's researchers to discover easy and smart daily actions to rationalize energies and decrease waste.
MED-DESIRE energy efficiency labs objective was to make students and their families aware of the importance of the adoption of sustainable behavior in everyday life: at home, at school, at work and at freetime, everyone can contribute to save energy by changing their habits with small measures, adopting a conscious and responsible behavior towards energy uses, possibly using the best technologies available.
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MED-DESIRE at the Arab Energy Efficiency Day in Beirut - Lebanon |
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The "Arab Energy Efficiency Day" is a pan-Arab initiative that aims to raise the awareness of energy efficiency practices and technologies in the Arab region. This year, the 3rd Arab Energy Efficiency celebration was held in Beirut, Lebanon on 21 May 2015 and was jointly organized by the League of Arab States and the LCEC, in cooperation with MED-DESIRE.
The ceremony has witnessed the acknowledgement of three distinguished energy efficiency projects in the Arab World, whereas Lebanon and Palestine co-shared the first prize of the best EE project award.
The event also included the screening of documentaries and TV commercials promoting EE in different Arab countries that the organizing committee, consisting of MED-DESIRE, LCEC, MED-ENEC and RCREEE, had arranged to produce in order to be used as awareness raising tools.
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Awareness raising activities in Lebanon |
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In May 2015 LCEC organized many awareness raising activities targeted to the Lebanese young generations: the "Green-energy-themed fair" with Scout Group of Champville (May 9th and 10th) to ensure and facilitate the sharing of lessons and experiences learned among scouts to promote EE and RE mindset; an awareness-raising day for the Boy Cub Scouts (May 3rd) with over 3,000 contestants who participated in an energetic day that was full of activities done to promote the EE and RE mindset; the "Green-energy" themed rally paper with ESIB (May 9th and 10th), with over 2,700 participants; the Bikeathon (May 10th) at the Beirut River Solar Snake to encouraged the adoption of "green cities standards" and inspire a city free of cars.
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MED-DESIRE on Ciudad Sostenible Magazine - Spain |
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Ciudad Sostenible, a Spanish magazine dedicated to Urban Sustainability, published every three months, paper publication as well as on-line (www.ciudadsostenible.eu), dedicated an in-depth analysis to the MED-DESIRE project.
The publication, released on February 2015, describes the main activities and outputs of the project, focusing on financial mechanisms, capacity buildings and certification activities
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"Opportunities of the development of solar thermal in buildings of municipal areas" - Awareness raising event in Tunisia |
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The National Agency for Energy Conservation (ANME) on April 22nd 2015 organized an awareness-raising event titled "The Opportunities of Development of Solar Thermal and PV in Buildings of Municipal Areas", held in Hammam Sousse - Tunisia.
The event was an occasion to discuss how to overcome the possible barriers to the implementation of solar ordinances for distributed solar energy technologies in municipal areas. It was also an opportunity to highlight the contribution of solar ordinances in reaching the national objectives.
Focus on MED-DESIRE partners |
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PV and EE in Italy |
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At the end of 2013, more than 18GW of PV systems were operational in Italy. As a whole, 8,47 GW of centralized systems and 27 MW of CPV have benefited from targeted incentives: the Feed-in scheme "Conto Energia" implemented from 2005 to 2013 and the Feed-in tariff (Fit) "Scambio sul posto" - based on the electricity produced - introduced in 2011. These incentives have allowed a boom of installations in 2010 and 2011 and connection to the grid in 2011 and 2012.
For a market evolution perspective, Italy holds the world record when looking at the number of systems connected to the grid in 2011: 9,3 GW were officially granted an access to the electricity network that year, mainly due to the decline in PV system prices, accompanied by a late Fit decrease (Source: IEA, GSE, ENEA, RSE).
Thanks to the implementation of national policies for energy efficiency, from 2007 to 2013, Italy saved 7.55 million tons of oil equivalent (Mtoe) per year, avoiding more than 2 billion euro natural gas and oil imports and 18 million tons of CO2 emissions. Moreover, thanks to the incentive mechanism of tax deductions for residential building renovation, over 2 million households have invested 22 billion Euros to make their homes more efficient, with an induced employment averaging around 40,000 annual jobs.
Italy is currently on track to 2020 target: from now on, through the further implementation of the NEEAP, the energy end use savings target will be the achievement of 1-1,5 Mtoe of new savings each year (Source: IV National EE Annual Report, ENEA).
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The Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development - ENEA |
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ENEA is the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, with a workforce of over 2700 researchers and administrative staff, distributed in its 9 research centers all over the national territory. It conducts research and innovation activities and provides public administration, enterprises and citizens with its advanced services concerned with energy efficiency, renewable energies, nuclear energy and environment. It also dedicates its technological innovation skills to cultural heritage conservation, agro-food and human health.
Since 2008, to comply with provisions of Directive 2006/32/CE, ENEA has been acting also as National Agency for Energy Efficiency. It supports national and regional/local policy makers to define and implement EE policies, such as NEEAP; cooperates in the management of the national incentives programs; develops methodologies and tools to assess and monitor energy savings and publishes the National EE Annual Report.
Within MED-DESIRE project ENEA provides analysis and scenarios concerning the deployment of energy efficiency and renewable energies in Mediterranean partner countries. It contributes to the elaboration of proposals for the harmonization of rules and standards, supporting Partners" local Authorities to boost the adoption of solar technologies and a more efficient use of energy from fossil fuels. It is actually performing an intensive capacity building programme with MPC partners, focused on the creation of qualified/certified PV testing laboratories, to foster a self-consistent market of solar technologies.
ENEA plays also an active role in the dissemination and exploitation of the project results and in the implementation of awareness campaigns.
Consortium |
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Project leader |
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Puglia Region Economic Development, Employment and Innovation Policy Area Industrial Research and Innovation Department |
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Puglia Region implementing agency 
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Apulia Regional Agency for Technology and Innovation |
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Partners |
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Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea |
Italian National Agency for New technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development |
Andalusian Energy Agency |
Andalusian Institute of Technology |
Center of Energetic, Environmental And Technological Investigations - Solar Platform of Almeria |
Tunisian National Agency for Energy Conservation |
Lebanese Center for Energy Conservation |
Egyptian New and Renewable Energy Authority |
Contacts |
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This is the seventh MED-DESIRE quarterly newsletter. If you don't want to receive MED-DESIRE newsletters anymore, please reply to this email writing 'unsubscribe' in the subject line.
This publication has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union under the ENPI CBC Mediterranean Sea Basin Prograe. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of Puglia Region/ARTI and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union or of the Programme's management structures.
The 2007-2013 ENPI CBC Mediterranean Sea Basin Programme is a multilateral Cross-Border Cooperation initiative funded by the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI). The Programme objective is to promote the sustainable and harmonious cooperation process at the Mediterranean Basin level by dealing with the common challenges and enhancing its endogenous potential. It finances cooperation projects as a contribution to the economic, social, environmental and cultural development of the Mediterranean region. The following 14 countries participate in the Programme: Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Palestinian Authority, Portugal, Spain, Syria, Tunisia. The Joint Managing Authority (JMA) is the Autonomous Region of Sardinia (Italy). Official Programme languages are Arabic, English and French.
The project MED-DESIRE is implemented under the ENPI CBC Mediterranean Sea Basin Programme (enpicbcmed.eu). Its total budget is 4.470.463,70 Euro and it is financed, for an amount of 4.023.417,24 Euro, by the European Union through the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument. The ENPI CBC Med Programme aims at reinforcing cooperation between the European Union and partner countries regions placed along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
