The new association created by Enel Green power, Edison, CESI, GSE, PwC, and Politecnico di Milano, which was also recently joined by Asja Ambiente Italia, the Bordoni Foundation, and Terna Plus, is meant to promote renewable energy in the Mediterranean, along with the electricity infrastructure needed for transport.
Goals include: acting as the “network of networks” for current international renewable energy projects, in order to communicate with institutions and help the main players in Italy’s energy industry develop solutions that will encourage energy investments in the Mediterranean..
Rome 3 May 2012
Today in Rome at the Enel Auditorium, the new non-profit, RES4MED – Renewable Energy Solutions for the Mediterranean, was presented. The association was created through joint efforts by Enel Green Power, Edison, CESI, GSE, PwC and Politecnico di Milano – sponsored by the Ministries of Development, Environment, Foreign Affairs, and Research, as well as the Milan Chamber of Commerce – and recently joined by Asja Ambiente Italia, the Bordoni Foundation and Terna Plus. Other RES4MED members include Ricerca di sistema -RSE, Aper and Althesys.
The start-up of the association, which is open to other national and international stakeholders, was announced at today’s conference on the future of energy in the Mediterranean. Organized by the founding partners of RES4MED – represented by Chairman Francesco Starace – the conference was attended by key figures such as Corrado Clini, Minister for the Environment; Piero Gnudi, Minister of Tourism; Paolo Andrea Colombo, Chairman of Enel, Leonardo Senni, Head of the Energy Department at the Ministry for Economic Development and Riccardo Puliti, Managing Director of the EBRD’s Department of Energy and Natural Resources; along with representatives from IEA, OME, Desertec Dii, MedGrid, MEDREG, and MED-TSO.
Today the Mediterranean region is faced with a number of crucial issues to guarantee long-term development and economic stability in the entire area. The challenges are many and varying in nature: security of energy supplies, growing demand for energy, optimization of business relations between producing and consuming countries, as well as guaranteeing a sustainable energy future for the entire region.
Southern Mediterranean countries are expected to boost their installed capacity by 370 GW in order to generate the amount of energy needed for a population that will increase by 80 million over the next 20 years. A significant share of this energy could be generated by renewables, in order to cover a major portion of the new demand from Southern Mediterranean countries, as well as exporting some of this energy to Europe.
According to preliminary estimates from OME’s “Mediterranean Energy Perspectives 2011”, around 120-160 billion euros will be invested within 2030 in solar and wind plants alone, the same order of magnitude for investments that will be dedicated to conventional power plants – an investment opportunity for the entire Mediterranean region.
Within this framework, RES4MED aims at helping create the necessary conditions in terms of regulations, infrastructure and finances, to ensure large-scale distribution of renewable plants and systems as well as their integration into the electricity market in the Mediterranean area.
RES4MED plans to systematically activate and optimize the many technical, financial and research-related resources operating worldwide with comparable resources already active in several Mediterranean countries.
In fact, the mission of this newly established association is to open dialogue with political bodies and institutions as well as acting as a “network of networks”, with regards to other international projects underway – whether institutional, such as Med Solar Plan and MEDREG, or industrial, such as Desertec Dii, MedGrid, OME, MED-TSO, as well as national solar plans. RES4MED is also aimed at helping the main energy industry players to propose joint plans of action for the Mediterranean area, from North Africa to the Balkans.
The new project’s goals are as follows:
Share and reinforce strategies currently implemented by Mediterranean countries;
Analyze and reinforce the experience acquired through other public and private initiatives carried out in recent years;
Implement complementary and additional activities alongside those already underway, paying special attention to specific requirements in local areas;
Provide suggestions and propose plans that will encourage investments in Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries;
Work with Southeastern Mediterranean countries to prepare a medium-term integrated outlook, involving connections between Mediterranean countries without being limited to unidirectional energy flows, but envisaging a growing need for energy exchange.