The inauguration ceremony of the Moldova Sustainable Energy Information Centre took place on 15 April 2016 in Chisinau, Moldova with the participation of Mr. Valeriu Triboi, Deputy Minister of Economy of Moldova together with Mr. Alexandre Darras, Attaché-Project Manager at the EU Delegation to Moldova, Mr. Mihail Stratan, Director of the Energy Efficiency Agency of Moldova (AEE), and Mr. Adrian Twomey, INOGATE Project Team Leader.

The Chisinau Sustainable Energy Information Centre, housed in the Moldovan Agency of Energy Efficiency, will serve as a hub for a number of initiatives by NGOs, businesses and education institutes, aiming to inform and educate citizens. The centre’s staff will focus on outreach activities and will be equipped with interactive exhibits, demos of sustainable energy products, and lots of information material. The will work closely with the hub members and run regular roadshows to local communities to promote country-wide awareness on energy efficiency. A strong emphasis is also given to the use of social media and digital communication to engage with younger audiences.

During the ceremony, the participants had the opportunity to interact with interactive displays and exhibits prepared for the Sustainable Energy Information Centre and to collect information materials.

You can follow the activity at “Inauguration ceremony of the Sustainable Energy Information Center in Moldova”. 

Relevant activity “Sustainable Energy Information Centres – disseminating the experience from Georgia and Moldova (workshop)”

Relevant Publication “INOGATE Success Story 1: Saving energy at home - a ‘how to’ centre for sustainable energy”

On the photo from left to right: Mr.Adrian Twomey, INOGATE Team Leader, Mr. Valeriu Triboi, Deputy Minister of Economy of Moldova, Mr. Mihail Stratan, Director of the Energy Efficiency Agency of Moldova (AEE) and Mr. Alexandre Darras, Attaché-Project Manager at the EU Delegation to Moldova

The Sustainable Energy Information Centre (SEIC) opened on 22 April 2016, in Tbilisi with the participation of Mr. Ilia Elosvhili, Deputy Minister of Energy, Mr. David Narmania, Tbilisi’s Mayor and Mr. Wolfgang Lutz, INOGATE Leader of the Sustainable Energy team and other official and civil Society representatives.

The Georgian centre, housed in the main hall of the Tbilisi City Hall, is an extension of the City Hall services already being provided. It is a place to spread the word on sustainable energy, helping the public make small, affordable investments in energy efficiency. Through greater awareness of energy efficiency, consumers are empowered to make informed choices to save themselves money and help increase their country’s energy security.

The main targets are citizens, business people, the staff of Tbilisi City Hall and school children. The Tbilisi City Hall welcomes in its building an average of 1,600 visitors daily and the centre aims to reach at least 10% of these, directly face-to-face. Conservatively speaking the Centre will engage with over 40,000 visitors annually.

Mr. Xavier Dubuisson, who has worked with INOGATE to initiate Sustainable Energy Information Centres in Chisinau (Moldova) and Tbilisi, sees their role as “empowering citizens to reap the benefits of energy efficiency, environmental protection and energy security, for themselves as well as for their country.”

For more information you can access the following link: “Inauguration of the Sustainable Energy Information Centre, Georgia”

Relevant Info: Success story “Saving energy at home:  a ‘how to’ centre for sustainable energy”

On April 21 the EU-funded programme INOGATE summarized its Energy Policy Talks with the fifth and final meeting in Kyiv. Major players in the energy field discussed the latest key recommendations for policy changes needed to overcome political, legal, regulatory, technical barriers and take advantage of Ukraine’s renewable energy potential. This policy talk aimed at discussing the way to attract private sector investments in renewable energy in Ukraine. As a result of this policy talk it is foreseen that renewed commitments will be taken by the relevant national authorities to ensure a clear roadmap and policy framework for renewables to reach 11% share in the total energy consumption by 2020.

Ukraine has a significant renewable energy potential which can be exploited to create jobs, improve the trade balance and drive economic activity. It is a critical time for the country now as dependence on energy imports is increasing and energy infrastructure is aging. Attracting investments to renewable energy projects will make a real contribution to the existing policy goals of reducing the dependency on imported natural gas and diversifying the energy supply.

According to the recent study prepared by INOGATE, in 2015, the world saw the largest ever investments in the renewable energy sector at over 280 billion USD – mostly from developing countries. But in Ukraine renewable investments have almost come to a stand-still. It is time to realise the important contribution that renewable energy can bring to Ukraine’s economy and energy security. It is time to put the right policy mix in place to stimulate these investments.

The Ukrainian Government has adopted the National Renewable Energy Action which has a goal to increase the share of renewables in the total energy consumption to at least 11% by 2020. In 2015, this share was approximately 4% for renewables. It is estimated that this 11% target will require EUR 16 billion in renewable energy investments:  EUR 8.9 billion for power generation, EUR 6.7 billion for heating and cooling and EUR 0.56 billion for transport.

The Policy Talk provided a set of insights and prioritized recommendations for increasing private sector investment in Ukraine’s RES sector. These recommendations are addressing project developers, investors, project initiators in Ukraine and European Commission.  The key recommendations and other materials can be found at this link. 

Ministers, deputy-ministers and other high-ranking officials from INOGATE Partner Countries (PCs), Directors-General from the European Commission and European representatives of international financial organisations, energy agencies, the private sector, think tanks and academics gathered in Brussels, Belgium on 17 March 2016 to celebrate 20 years of INOGATE Programme activity in energy cooperation and to plan future action to further this cooperation. The event was organised by the European Commission, with support from the EU-funded INOGATE Technical Secretariat project.

The conference, “EU Energy Cooperation with Eastern Neighbourhood and Central Asia”, was opened with a keynote address by Mr Johannes Hahn, EU Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations. He presented energy as “a key to stabilisation but also fundamental to economic development, competitiveness, social development and the quality of the daily lives of citizens.” The address was followed by two high-level panel discussions, one on energy security and sustainability, the other on energy investments. In closing the morning session, Mr. Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President for Energy Union of the European Commission described the conference as “representing the turning of a new page in our energy cooperation”. He added “by no means will we loosen our cooperation – but the mechanisms will be updated. We are concluding a very successful programme and introducing a new one to replace it. We are about to launch the follow-up to INOGATE in two months' time to last until 2020 with a budget of €21 million. The new programme will reflect the current reality and we are making sure it is future-proof”.

Breakout sessions in the afternoon gave delegates the opportunity to discuss various aspects of INOGATE’s activities over the years: evidence-based policy making using energy statistics, empowering consumers by raising awareness on energy efficiency, energy markets and tariffs, attracting investment and energy regulation. Speakers from Partner Countries described their experiences in improving these aspects of energy cooperation with the help of the INOGATE Programme over the years.

An exhibition and networking area gave delegates the opportunity to network and find out the latest information on energy projects in the Partner Countries, as well as interacting with country delegates.

You can receive more information about the event and the full documentation (presentations, speeches, photos) at “Final Conference on “EU Energy Cooperation with Eastern Neighborhood and Central Asia”.