Renewable Energy Sources

This document released by Green Line Association, a Lebanese NGO, provides an overview of the renewable energies penetration in Lebanon and in surrounding countries (Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Syria).

In Lebanon, collective solar water heating (SWH) systems' installations have verified an annual increase rate of 24% since 2000, whereas in the past individual SWH systems were more common. The figures show that a decrease in the purchasing costs of the systems has been positive to the market.

This is a document released by the Swedish company Absolicon about the solar thermal and PV project being carried out through a public-private partnership in the small town of Härnösand in Sweden.

The hospital in Härnösand is now an example of energy efficiency and use of renewable energy sources for Sweden and Europe. 50 m2 of suntracking solar panels, generating
power and heat simultaneously, were installed on the roof of the hospital.

This study has been produced with the support of the German Federal Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety.

The document provides an overview of different renewable energy sources (wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and hydroelectricity) in the so-called MENA Region (Middle East North African Region), with regards to their current status, potential, applications used, institutional and legal framework, national targets, barriers and drivers for their further use and development.

This report, published in the framework of the Re-Shaping project, provides an overview of the existing RES support schemes in the 27 EU Member States.

The project RE-Shaping aims to assist Member States in preparing for the implementation of the RES Directive (2009/28/EC) and to guide a European policy for RES in the mid to long term.

In this report, the past and present success of policies for renewable energies are evaluated and recommendations derived to improve future RES support schemes are provided.

This presentation made by Antoine Riolo of Malta Resources Authority provides a general overview of the renewable energies used in Malta, including solar thermal and the existing support mechanisms to this technology.

Solar thermal applications for water heating are actually the renewable energy source with higher penetration rate in the country, with an estimated capacity of 16,700kWth in 2006.

Space cooling, according to the presentation, has considerable potential, but needs further improvements as to what regards the commercialisation of small units

In the services sector, hotels are a high energy consumer, which offers a good opportunity to promote the use of renewable energy sources, including solar thermal, in the tourism sector, especially in the Mediterranean region, as this paper emphasizes.

This paper goes through the potential of the RES' use in the total energy consumption of hotels situated in the Spanish Balearic Islands, a very famous touristic destination, with about half a million beds available.

Mr Pascual Polo, Secretary General of the Spanish Solar Thermal Association - ASIT - gave this presentation during a Workshop organised by ESTIF on 2nd December on the implementation of the RES Directive.

The presentation goes through the Spanish solar thermal market and the implementation of the RES Directive.

In 2000, 25% of Finland’s energy consumption resulted from renewable energy sources, which makes Finland share of RES in the total energy consumption the third highest in the EU.

Nonetheless, the government launched a National Climate Strategy and Action Plan for Renewable Energy in 2001 with a view to meet the Kyoto commitments for Finland. The long-term objective is to increase the competitiveness of renewable energies and to ease the development of an open energy market without continuous support measures.

This document provides an overview of a PDF-B (Project Development Fund) project, built-up in partnership with the UNDP and GEF, designed to improve the solar water heating market in Albania.