– The forum took place in the framework of the VIII Mediterranean Week of Economic Leaders
– New opportunities in the Mediterranean region were discussed in the forum
– Technology and partnerships are key factors in the achievement of local economic benefits
– 25M of € of investment in solar energy in the Mediterranean from the 6 European confinanced projects involved in the forum.
Barcelona, 11th of December
In the framework of the 8th edition of the Mediterranean Week of Economic Leaders that was held from the 26th to the 28th of November, ASCAME and the Chamber of Commerce of Industry and Navigation of Barcelona organized the 1st Mediterranean Solar Forum, which analyzed the challenges and opportunities that the Solar Energy Market represents in the Mediterranean basin.
This VIII edition of the Mediterranean week of Economic leaders, focused on key aspects essential to the sustainable and inclusive development of the Mediterranean region such as renewable energies and eco-efficiency. This year the focus will be made on Green Economy as a main driving force for the economic and social growth of the region.
The Mediterranean Solar Forum focused on social impact, training, policy impact and the challenges in the solar sector.
The event gathered, for the first time, 6 strategic projects of the “ENPI CBC MED Solar cluster” established in Amman, Jordan in October 2013 and composed of all the ENPI CBC MED Strategic Projects promoting the growth of the Mediterranean Solar sector: FOSTEr in MED; SHAAMS; MED SOLAR; DIDSOLITPB; STS-MED and MED DESIRE.
These projects from the European Union Neighborhood Policy financing instrument (ENPI), included European Union members and partner countries regions located along the both shores of the Mediterranean Sea, and are working on the promotion and the development of the solar energy sector in the Mediterranean basin.
The Mediterranean Solar Forum was inaugurated by Philippe de Fontaine Vive, Vice-President, European Investment Bank (EIB); Teresa Ribeiro, Deputy Secretary General for Energy of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM); Abdelmalik Aadiati, representing the Chamber of Tangiers and ASCAME’s Renewable Energy Commission, and Alaa Ezz, in representation of the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce and responsible for leading both ASCAME’s Environment Commission and the ENPI CBC MED Solar Projects Cluster.
During the inauguration the importance of promoting a Mediterranean platform of solar energy in order to establish an economic and strategic alliance was discussed.
During the session, the need of creating more projects was also highlighted as well as the need of using new opportunity tools to boost the development of the solar energy.
The session about leveraging investment in the Mediterranean Solar Market, counted on the participation of Xavier Valvé, Director of Trama Medioambiental, Giles Dickson, Vice-president of Environmental Policies and Global Advocacy, Alstom Group and Ionannis Vourdoubas, Professor of the Technological Educational Institute of Crete and Mariano Vizcaino, Director of International Development, Abengoa Solar, and it was moderated by Caty Arévalo, Environment Correspondent of EFE Agency.
The importance of choosing wisely how to invest in solar energy was one of the issues discussed during the session. Beside this, it was highlighted the new opportunities in the North and South Mediterranean, as well as the differences between both shores.
Of particular discussion in the session were the main reasons for using solar energy, in particular for the technical and local economic development of each of the regions and also the affordable cost and positive macroeconomic impact.
It was also highly remarked that technology and partnerships are key factors for boosting local economy benefits.
In relation to solar energy investment, the state of the art in Greece was presented, as an example of a country which has very attractive feed-in tariffs for photovoltaic systems, as well as large investment from European Funds.
The session on Regional Cooperation for the Promotion of the Solar Sector counted on expert presentation and in depth dialogue between the ENPI CBC Med Solar Cluster on the state of policy and legislation, education and training, infrastructures, involving wider society.
The debate was moderated by Luca Palazzo, Joint Managing Authority of ENPI CBC MED and involved the participation of Guiseppe Desogus from the University of Cagliari as a spokesman for the FOSTEr in MED project; Cristian Bardaji from Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, as representative of the SHAAMS project; Antonie Graillot from TramaAmbiental as a representative of MED SOLAR project; Álex Parella from the Autonomous University of Barcelona representing DIDSOLIT-PB; Fabio Maria Montangnino, Managing Director of ARCA Constortium and a representative of STS-MED project and Juan Pablo Jiménez from Andalusian Institute of Technology on behalf of the MED DESIRE project.
During the debate, 4 main themes were discussed related to challenges and opportunities of solar infrastructures (on-grid PV systems, off-grid PV systems, back-up PV systems); programs and necessities of education and training on solar energy; the impact and involvement of society in the implementation of solar energy; and policy and legislation on the solar sector.
All 6 solar projects have common objectives such as raising public awareness on energy efficiency through the transferability and implementation of good practices in legal, regulatory, economic and organizational issues including the promotion of new financing mechanisms to facilitate the take up of solar technologies: opportunities and potentialities of solar energy solutions, collaborative activities by public and private stakeholders, common MED long-term approach towards solar energy and encouraging informed debates.
During the debate, features of on-grid Photovoltaic System were presented. It was highlighted that it is a technical challenge that can be boosted by: simply policy, easy building integration, and a high importance for the development of the industry in the Mediterranean sector.
On the other hand, the features of back-up photovoltaic systems were presented, which among others are: more technological complexity, they offer energy management systems, reduce fuel consumption and increase employment.
The last session was related to the VI Medacity with a special edition of the future Mediterranean Cities: New energies for sustainability – the Era of solar energy.
The session count on the participation of Malek Kabariti, Former Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources of Jordan; Enric Fuster, of Innopro and Expert in Regional Specialization; Guisepe Desogous from the Univesity of Cagliari; Farida Boukhtouche Cherfa, Reserch Officer form the Development Center of Renewable Energies; and Rosa Paradell, Director of the Smart City Business Institute, while it was moderated by Manel Manchón, Political correspondent on the financial daily Economía Digital.
During the session the integration of renewable energies in cities was the topic of debate, such as PV solar, wind energy, the use of numerical technology to manage energy and the energy independence with efficiency, in order to reduce the cost of living.
One of the presentations revealed that by the 2020 the 40% of the consumption of national energy will be from the renewable energy. Nowadays more than 50% of the world population lives in urban areas. These cities are responsible for 70% of the worldwide energy consumption, and at the same time they are responsible for 70% of greenhouse gases emissions. By 2050 almost 70% of the world’s population is projected to be urban based, highlighting the need for debate on the integration of more sustainable energy solutions in our cities.
The event was organized in the framework of a capitalisation event of the FOSTEr in Med project, whose objective is to transfer the know how in the solar energy field, to implement and promote a share design methodology and to promote innovative Solar Energy technologies at civil society level. The PV Building Integration (BIPV) is a practice that allows the use of PV modules as architectural elements. The main outputs of the project are the 5 PV plants that will be installed public buildings in 5 of the regions involved such as Alexandria (Egypt), Beirut (Lebanon), Aqaba (Jordan), Tunis(Tunisia) and Cagliari (Italy). The forum was also held in the framework of the SHAAMS project, which has the goal of promoting the development of common strategies in the solar energy sector in the Mediterranean in close collaboration between public and private actors. The main outputs of the project are 24 multilateral exchange missions, 8 capacity building actions and 3 technology transfer and brokerage events (Jordan, Lebanon and Spain) and STS-MED project that focus on the development, implementation and diffusion of pioneering technologies to improve energy efficiency in public buildings. These 3 projects belong to the network of ASCAME, which is the main representative Association of private sector in the Mediterranean and it is currently represented in the consortia of 22 projects in the Mediterranean basin.
The forum will also count on the collaboration of the MED-SOLAR project that is building 4 solar plants models on the roof of hospitals and universities in Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan with the intention of promoting and transferring occidental know-how technology while solving structural energy problems in these countries. The DIDSOLITPB project’s objective, which was also in the forum, 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 last project that takes part of the Med Solar cluster is MED DESIRE project that works to facilitate the take up of distributed solar energy and energy efficiency in the target regions, by achieving effective cross-border cooperation and by raising public awareness on the related benefits for the environment and for sustainable local development.
“For further information about the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce and the different forums of the Mediterranean Week please don’t hesitate to contact us by e-mail. At europeanproject@cambrabcn.org or visit www.medaeconomicweek.org”
Kindly check more press releases on the following links:
http://www.automaticaeinstrumentacion.com/es/notices/2014/11/barcelona-acogera-el-1er-mediterranean-solar-forum-42517.php#.VIluX3lOXct
http://www.europapress.es/catalunya/noticia-barcelona-acoge-primer-foro-solar-mediterraneo-20141127171903.html
http://www.atalayar.com/content/barcelona-acoge-el-primer-foro-solar-mediterr%C3%A1neo-en-el-marco-de-la-semana-mediterr%C3%A1nea-de
http://www.secartys.org/detalle_noticia_secartys.jsp?DS119.PROID=37296
http://www.efeverde.com/noticias/barcelona-organiza-el-primer-forum-solar-mediterraneo/
http://www.erasolar.es/BEraSolarNet/?p=14737
http://www.lavanguardia.com/local/barcelona/20141127/54420809545/barcelona-acoge-el-primer-foro-solar-del-mediterraneo.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
http://www.eldiariomontanes.es/agencias/20141110/economia/lideres-economicos-mediterraneo-cita-barcelona_201411101049.html
http://murciaeconomia.com/not/30336/los-lideres-economicos-del-mediterraneo-se-dan-cita-en-barcelona/
http://www.efeverde.com/noticias/medaweek-barcelona-economia-verde/
http://barcelona.thesocialpost.org/las-noticias-de-barcelona-hoy-28-11-2014/
http://noticiaslainformacion.paydaycash202.info/economia-negocios-y-finanzas/hardware/barcelona-acoge-el-primer-foro-solardelmediterraneo_UBtTzmEQ6Zwz4pKiSy3VX4/
http://www.enpicbcmed.eu/communication/renewable-energy-six-enpi-cbc-med-projects-focus-first-mediterranean-solar-forum
http://www.med-desire.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=227:1st-med-solar-forum&catid=94:archivio-notizie-destra&Itemid=640&lang=en
http://www.iat.es/etiqueta/mediterranean/?lang=en
http://www.didsolit.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=38&Itemid=50&ml=5&mlt=i-lunar&tmpl=component
http://www.medcities.org/es/web/medcities/-/act-ascame-international-meeting
http://www.medaeconomicweek.org/barcelona-the-capital-on-the-26th-november-of-the-1st-solar-energy-forum-in-the-framework-of-the-mediterranean-week-of-economic-leaders/
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/Solar-Energy-Forum-in-Barcelona-3291686.S.5929277879677386752?trk=groups_items_see_more-0-b-ttl
