Renewable Energy Coordination Group explores new areas of cooperation

Today’s Renewable Energy Coordination Group meeting gathered around 40 participants to discuss progress in the field of renewable energy and set the Group’s priorities for the next two years.  The Contracting Parties continue working on setting 2030 renewables targets through preparation of the National Energy Climate Plans (NECPs) and reforming their support schemes in order to introduce market-based auctions.

The Secretariat presented a proposal for the Group’s Work Programme for 2021-2022. The programme focuses mainly on facilitating implementation of guarantees of origin, as well as renewables self-consumption and renewable energy communities in line with the recast Renewable Energy Directive, expected to be adopted in the Energy Community in 2021.

The meeting featured a presentation of a policy brief  on renewables cross-border cooperation in the Energy Community. Cross-border auctions and joint projects are considered to be one of the key instruments for the Contracting Parties to cost-effectively increase the share of renewables in their energy mix by cooperating between each other and with EU Member States. Such projects could bring foreign investments, create new jobs, reduce import dependency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and foster bilateral political cooperation. No such cooperation has taken place to date, partly due to legal complexity, but the upcoming revision of the recast Renewables Energy Directive and its adoption in the Energy Community could make this instrument more attractive to use.