Season 1

Enabling regulatory frameworks for Renewables in CEE - Panel Discussion 1- TEB 1st Forum

· 50m

TL;DR

CEE renewable deployment faces permitting, financing, and acceptance hurdles, but regional potential and proactive solutions attract investment.

Synopsis

Panelists discuss persistent barriers to renewable energy deployment in CEE, including inconsistent permitting, grid access, and the need for robust financing mechanisms like CFDs and PPAs. Societal acceptance and the complexity of national-level implementation of EU directives are also highlighted. Despite these challenges, the region's significant renewable potential, combined with proactive private sector engagement and innovative policy approaches like energy communities, continues to attract investment. Cooperation between stakeholders and clear legal frameworks are critical for accelerating the green transition.

Key metrics

by the numbers · 8

5 years
Second renewables wave duration
10 or 15 years
CFD predictable revenue period
2020
Romania PPA market unblocked
9
Austrian permitting schemes
3,000+
Austrian active energy communities
1-2 years
Energy Community directive delay
end of 2022
Renewables Directive 2 transposition deadline
14
EU states with RED II infringement

Topics

8 tags

Permitting ReformCFD MechanismsGrid AccessSocietal AcceptanceEnergy CommunitiesCEE Market DynamicsInvestment RiskLegal Harmonization

Stats

Duration: 50m
Words: 7.5k
Questions: 15

Timeline

10 chapters

Key Barriers to Green Transition
Panelists are asked to identify the most significant legal or operational barriers delaying green transition in the CEE region.
European Legislative Steps and CFDs
Adina Stoa discusses how European legislation, like the CFD framework, has provided principles to enhance renewables, acting as a mitigating factor for investors but also a potential barrier due to market competition.
Investor Perspective on Limiting Factors
Nicola Kofler highlights that for investors, the pace of permissions, grid access, and investment incentives (like PPAs/CFDs) are the primary limiting factors.
Policy Maker Perspective: Acceptance, Finance, Legal Clarity
Leonor Gesler outlines three key points from a policy maker's view: societal acceptance of the transition, leveraging private sector financing, and ensuring legal certainty and robust implementation of EU directives.
Energy Community Challenges: Permitting and Market Design
Rosetta Karova discusses the permitting issues and electricity market design challenges faced by Energy Community countries (Western Balkans, Ukraine, Georgia), which often lag EU implementation.
Commercial Contracts and Investor Confidence
Adina Stoa explains how commercial contracts and early cooperation with international investors can accelerate renewable projects in Romania, despite national legislative complexities.
Local Cooperation and Joint Ventures
Nicola Kofler emphasizes the pragmatic benefits of cooperating with local entities and communities, such as the Catholic Church in Romania, to mitigate risks and speed up project development.
Austria's Renewables Expansion Act and Energy Communities
Leonor Gesler highlights Austria's Renewables Expansion Act, which uses double-sided CFDs, and the success of over 3, 000 active energy communities in generating local acceptance.
Bridging the Gap: EU and Energy Community Development
Rosetta Karova discusses the delay in Energy Community countries transposing EU legislation and the ongoing efforts to develop balancing markets and move away from fixed feed-in tariffs.
Key Takeaways for Green Transition
Panelists offer final messages, emphasizing interdisciplinary cooperation, proactive engagement, political will, and the importance of communicating the technical, economic, and social viability of renewables.

Key insights

6 takeaways

01
Regional permitting schemes hinder progress
Austria, a small country, has nine different regional permitting schemes, requiring a two-thirds national majority to streamline, illustrating the complexity of legal implementation.
02
Societal acceptance is key
Policy makers struggle with voter acceptance of the energy transition, emphasizing the need for participatory project planning, community involvement, and ensuring cheap electricity costs reach consumers.
03
Private sector drives innovation
Despite legislative delays, the private sector rapidly develops commercial frameworks like INM APC PBAs, and forms local partnerships (e.g., with the Catholic Church in Romania) to accelerate projects and mitigate risks.
04
Energy communities boost acceptance
Austria's 3, 000+ active energy communities are a prime model for generating local acceptance and engagement, with citizens taking pride in their own renewable energy production.
05
CEE markets lag EU directives
Energy Community countries face a 1-2 year delay in transposing EU renewables directives, and often struggle with market liquidity and balancing market development, impacting investor certainty.
06
Legal certainty remains critical
While EU directives provide a basis, national implementation often creates "empty shells" or inconsistent application, underscoring the need for robust enforcement and clear legal frameworks.

Pull quotes

6 quotes

Is a mitigating factor for a lot of investors because me I interacted a lot from the investor's perspective So if I see a legislation, I see also how I can help the investors to enhance their development and also to get the return of investments because by the end of the day it's also about this besides of course sustainable matters and independence of electricity that we are all targeting.
Adina Stoa
And I think in order to put to the forefront the idea of we also need to work on societal acceptance of the transition.
Leonor Gesler
So there is a lot of details to work on in the actual implementation but if a lot of people I know I'm I'm a bit repetitive in that if all of you speak up it's a lot of help to reach exactly these things.
Leonor Gesler
It's dramatically and it's actually the way to go. that's what we are doing what I think everybody is doing on the one side to it's I'm coming now again from from the investment risk side to mitigate to split the risk for sure but also to speed up when it comes to establish projects.
Nicola Kofler
To generate acceptance. and that that needs of course because these are new actors. There's incumbents and here comes a new actor. What kind of responsibilities do they have? What kind of support schemes do they have? how kind of disruptive can they be?
Leonor Gesler
I'm totally convinced renewables is a disruptive technology and this will this is the future. If you look at global investments, this is where the money goes. the question is at what speed and at what scale.
Leonor Gesler

Transcript1095 cuesClick a timestamp to jump

Everyone, I hope you had a really nice
coffee break. Now, I'm extremely
honored to be on a panel full of
amazing female leaders. each of them
fantastic, experienced leader in
their fields. they are bringing
really amazing knowledge, expertise,
experience and I'm truly honored to
have a chance to hear from their
expertise to talk about solutions maybe
also challenges and especially because
in this industry it's really
difficult to find truly full
female leaders panel. So again, I'm
truly honored that I can moderate
this panel. let me first introduce
the panelists. some of them you
already had a chance to get to know and
to listen to their amazing really very
informative and insightful keynote
speeches and presentations. So let me
start with Adina Adina Stoa. please
correct me if Stoka
>> Stoka sorry. Yeah. So Adena Stoka
you're a legal director with many
years of experience. you are coming
from the one of the more most
perspective country in the sea region
where there's a lot of potential for
renewable energy project. So we are
very happy to have you here. thank
you very much for coming. then we
have Rosetta
Carova.
Thank you very much. So, Rosetta Carwa,
thank you very much for coming and to be
with us., you're international
consultant on energy and climate law.
You have a many experience also working
in international institution also
private projects and we are happy to
to have you here and to learn from your
extensive expertise. Thank you very
much. Should I add any of the of your
experience or
>> it's thank you. And then we have
Leonor Gesler. Thank you very much to be
with us. We already were impressed by
your keynote speech. Thank you very
much. And Nicola Kofler, thank you very
much for your presentation. We are happy
to have you here. Impressive experience.
A lot of to learn from you. So you're as
head of asset development at Veneri,
right? [snorts] let's start with a
key question. So we discussed we
heard that pace of renewable energy
deployment remains inconsistent
despite the clear European climate
targets and my question to all of you
is from your perspective what are the
most significant
barriers either from legal
perspective or operational perspective
delaying development of green
transition in sea region. So we heard
already some of them but what would you
summarize as key barriers?
>> Okay, maybe I can start
>> and also if if you want to be more
positive oriented please just focus on
solutions. Bring us some solutions. Why
do you believe our solutions? So we can
also focus only on solutions. So if you
believe there's enough challenges,
let's focus on solutions.
>> I hope you hear me. Okay. very
nice to see you everyone. And yeah
actually I was thinking that in the
first part of the discussion they
were mentioning a lot of challenges
and barriers and I found this as a bit
pessimistic although this is the reality
that we are living now but in the
context of the war which I think
even though we were not affected
directly there were some consequences
on the independent dependency that we
wanted to acquire. I think also the
transition to renewable was the good
solution that we mutually agree that
we can go forward in order to also to
secure our electricity but also to
make it in a very sustainable way for a
long term. So
in this context I think on a very
short period also the European
legislation managed to put some
principles or some objective that
help the countries to enhance the
renewables because we can be very much
aware that there was the first wave
of renewables that was like a like a
pause And on 2020 I think it started
the second wave of renewables and
because we have this like only
five years of the second renewables and
another phase another technologies me
I found that good steps were taken and
when I'm when I'm thinking about the
legislative steps I'm thinking about the
European directives which yes we have
some steps to start in the in the
national legislation and many
legislation were implemented at the
national level and here I would like to
mention about the CFD legislation
with I know that some of the
countries are very much used with
this legislation and is
is a mitigating factor for a lot of
investors because me I interacted a
lot from the investor's perspective So
if I see a legislation, I see also how I
can help the investors to enhance their
development and also to get the return
of investments because by the end of the
day it's also about this besides of
course sustainable matters and
independence of electricity that we
are all targeting. So in terms of the
CFD I found that is a is a very good
mitigator but in the same time it can
be a barrier because it's a competition
over there and if the market is
putting their prices very low then I
would say that this from a solution this
might my my might my might trigger
how to say a non-competitive price
prices in the market. other than this
I see also from the private
sector I think they moved very fast
maybe faster than the authorities where
they started to make frameworks of
agreements such as INM APC PBA these are
like general instruments that
everyone can accommodate based on their
commercial negotiation.
So despite of the legislation I think
the private sector also have their
have a thing to say and a word to say
and they managed to fasten their
their negotiations. In terms of public
system I think steps were taken
and here I'm thinking to one-stop shop
which is part of the red street
directive and a lot of states already
implemented this. I heard that Austria
is managing already very good on this.
In Romania we are still having some
issues. We are at the beginning of this
but in the short term maybe we
will achieve also consistent way of
getting the permits from one authority.
just a summary of this I will also
let our colleagues to get a
comparative perspective.
Thank you.
>> So everything is said I would say you
are so touch you took a lot of things.
just from our perspective
we have a pipeline we have the budget
we want to invest we're ready to go
and for us it's as I pointed out in the
presentation or at least I wanted to
point out it's the pace of the
permissions the grid access also
the incent investment incentives like
BPS that's actually for us the
limiting factor from the
responsibility I would say we are
somewhere in the middle in this triangle
of supplying energy security.
>> we want to decarbonize
and of course we want to
invest. So all of this I would say all
the points you were mentioning are very
well for us and for us it's important
a quick streamline fasttrack
permission as Italy for example is
having for this u what I was mentioning
for the solar pel for this PV
plants yeah a very transparent clear
and also aligned way of managing
the grid access as I And of course to
derisk the project at the beginning with
PPAs or CFDs just to take out a little
bit of the uncertainty and the
project risk otherwise you said
everything from my side there's nothing
to add
>> I don't know maybe I hand over
I will just take over and add again a
policy maker perspective to it and I'd
like to
do it on three points. the one is the
first one is acceptance
societal acceptance of the transition
and I have the feeling listening also to
the debates or looking back at the
debates in council if I hear heard
colleagues from the region they struggle
much more than I do in working
with their constituencies with their
societ with their voter base in the end
>> to see this is a good future this is an
affordable future. This is a clean
healthy thing that will actually work.
And I think in order to put to
the forefront the
idea of we also need to work on societal
acceptance of the transition. I think
the way projects are planned is
extremely important. how participatory,
how much community involvement also in
terms of community involvement like
we did with energy communities in
Austria, the integrity of the of the
projects we in Austria we will lose the
the work for hydrop power if we go to
the very last pristine alpine river that
that will have a huge cost in
acceptance and for a very marginal
benefit in electricity consumption. So
integrity or production integrity of the
project and I think a debate that has
accompanied us a lot in the last
years is electricity cost and I think
alto together around the sector we have
to be better in I can we all know
it's the cheapest way of
producing electricity we have to be
better in assuring this cheap cost
somewhere ends also on consumer's bills
and if we manage that I think we'll huge
steps in acceptance and then a lot of
these questions like how to build
acceptance for bigger projects, how to
make sure we yeah I think this
is really a key issue for all of us to
work on. The second one the second point
I wanted to add is the financing.
I think that's something that where
there's different models around and
where you always hear there's a lot of
private sector capital is there so
how can we leverage it we worked a lot
on electricity market design over the
last years and everything that's
needed there we built our own financing
law in Austria the renewable energy
expansion act that works with CFDs
we have to accept this is a learning
a learning field where we will get
feedback from the from the
practitioners saying okay this will work
this doesn't work but I think that
the financing question is a key one if I
look again out of the if I zoom out and
look at the European level
also there we need to make sure that
we keep money to where we have common
goals
because there's a limited part of
European financing also in
institutions like the EIB that are
especially important in the region. If
EIB starts to fund anything but
renewables then we do have a
financing issue also the European
investment bank if we then we have a
financing issue in the region and the
third point I heard a lot of calls
for legal certainty and legal clarity
and indeed that's something where
where we do have a good basis at the
European level with the renewable
energy directives with all the work we
did there. Again, coming back to what I
said before, I think it's crucial we
make sure in the implementation we don't
water it down or we don't create empty
shells. And I'm very happy if Vin
again next to me can help in that
because in Austria just to give you a
perspective why it's also not so easy in
Austria energy policy is not national
level policy it's actually regional
policy. So we have nine different
permitting schemes in Austria. Austria
is not such a big country. Yeah. But
nine different permitting schemes to
come over that you need a twothirds
majority at the national level. And so
to build that will be a key question
for the implementation of the renewable
energy directive three in Austria
because otherwise we have nine different
one-stop shops nine different goals
for renewable expansion that don't
actually deliver because there's so many
loopholes. So there is a lot of details
to work on in the actual implementation
but if a lot of people I know I'm I'm
a bit repetitive in that if all of you
speak up it's a lot of help to
reach exactly these things. So
acceptance finance and u please help
with the legal basis.
>> Okay. So last but not least on this
first round thanks a lot first of all
to the organizers. So Daniel Rahul Tanya
for reaching out. it's indeed a
pleasure to be here and to talk to you
with all these practitioners and working
on real project as I like to say it.
I don't come from the policy making
side. I do work as international
consultant now but always working with
international organizations. I have
basically always worked with the
beneficiaries. So always with the policy
makers with the governments regulators
so national institutions. So I come from
the perspective where I have always
assisted them and worked with them in
overcoming national challenges when
complying with the European legislation.
But the region that I am always
focused on I have been working on is not
the European CE. So it's the third
countries neighboring. So basically the
energy community countries western
Balkans but also Ukraine all over
Georgia Armenia.
most of them having this European
perspective and having also the legally
binding obligations to comply with
European legislation and when thinking
about because this is the first round
and then we will go into more details I
believe afterwards what are the main
issues that we are facing so now
currently I'm working with so Montenegro
just adopted last year a new renewables
law but up aligning with the second
renewables directive Serbia is
looking already into aligning with the
third renewables directive and I'm now
currently working with Macedonia where
we are drafting the new renewables law
and we are borrowing elements also from
the third renewables directive so not to
lag that much behind what I see in all
these countries and then also on
energy infrastructure projects in
Georgia and so on the issue of
permitting so it was also my main point
so I know it sounds repetitive as you
say but I think it is very important to
bring this up and I also saw the
infringements against the EU member
states thinking if 14 of them have not
implemented it on time or rightly or
correctly or especially these two
provisions 15 and 16 on the areas I
mean maybe the problem is not that much
into the students there are
certain issues as you say only Austria
has nine regions to overcome and this
inter institutional cooperation at
national level as well so even though
the countries with which I work they
have as you say streamlined provisions
and now I can give you better news from
Macedonia the energy law has just been
adopted and published last week. So
there the authorizations at least
the parts on the grid connection and so
on is dealt with the resource adequacy
part and similar now we will do the
same for the renewables law. so I
think it is extremely difficult in
and aligning on the [clears throat]
even the silence of administration
principle. So this is a legal
panel I would say mostly even on such
an issue like what do you do when there
are so many interlin steps and you need
to depend on one authorization one
decision after another. I think I
read only one nice example I don't
remember if it was Denmark or somewhere
in the U where actually in the online
platform as an investor once the
deadline is over the authority has not
responded you can download by yourself
decision and then you go forward I'm
afraid this is not really possible in
many of the countries and certainly
not in the region we will dig into
these provisions maybe a bit later on
the acceleration areas designation
spatial planning
but the second point is the
electricity market design. So the
countries with which I work and you will
have a separate panel on this
discussing the electricity market
development. these are small markets.
the market company has not been
finalized even though now it's ongoing.
So hopefully it's a process that will
bringing the liquidity increasing the
market. Absorption capacity for the
renewables is important. Only Serbia has
intraday market at the moment. the
others have the ahead market and we all
know about the renewables it's of utmost
importance to have interday market
but what I'm happy to say is that in the
countries with which I work this is
also an ongoing process so the time of
having this long-term feeding tariffs
for small hydropower plants I'm very
happy that it's over now all this
administratively feeding tariffs and we
will discuss this maybe later on the
spot schemes this is over taking
over balancing responsibility by
state-owned companies for the small
investors. This is also over and
hopefully now they're also working on
implementing and developing the
balancing market, completing the market
capital, increasing the market. So
this I think are all good news. and
yeah besides the challenges I
think there is a good work going on also
outside of the EU.
>> Thank you. Thank thank you very much to
all of you. now Adina may I ask
you to explain us more about from
your expertise and experience how do you
believe that in a private sector
and from investors perspective can so
you were talking about solutions and
commercial contracts importance how do
you believe especially in Romania or in
sea region
the structure of commercial
contracts. Early cooperation with
international investors
can speed up renewable projects
and investors investing more. So despite
the risk uncertainties but how this can
help because we all know that sometimes
ensuring that they invest despite the
risks. So to find the solutions around
with commercial contracts, structuring
the deals.
>> Yeah. I think we're already
circulated some of the examples, good
practices about Romania, meaning that
Romania is a very good country to invest
at least from the project that you
displayed. there were a lot of
megabytes that were developed. and
not not just about the resources but
also about the practitioners over there.
I think when when we are talking
about the contracts okay this is
something that the parties can
regulate but also this type of contracts
even if you're acquiring an SP a project
company or you are entering into some
construction agreements they all
have a national a national
legislation part and all the time the
contracts will be linked with the
national legislation
when I have to think about solution
is that I'm all the time thinking
about what our investors are requiring
because I'm I had experience with
working with many investors from
different jurisdiction countries the
problems were so different because
they are coming with what they are
accustom with the rules of the house and
now they want to invest in a foreign
country and that's the part when I all
the time I have to make like a short
introduction about how is the regulation
in Romania, what you should take in
consideration when when you would like
to invest, what is predictable but also
what is not predict predictable and also
to assess your risk of investment and
because I think one month ago I was
reading an article from European
Commission that they want to make a
common legislation for labor work
regarding business loan they want to
make something that can apply to all
the countries. Here I was thinking that
in some points this can be also
applicable for renewable energy
legislation because yes we have
directives but these are giving just
direction to the countries how to
implement and how to custom with
the nationality rules. and I was
thinking that this might be a solution
in terms of the legislation and in
terms of the contracts what can I say
it's when it's about the private
contracts it's the matter of u
negotiation between parties but when
it's about this incentives European
incentive I really have a good example
that I still don't have the answer
about the CFD that was a very like
last year we had the first round and
that was a premiere for our country
and our investors that were very
excited that they can have an instrument
to have predictable revenues for a
specific period and but in the agreement
there was a clause that was stating that
in case the operator of in our
case will have some un mutually
terminated agreement without reason. So
basically that was the clause and
because this I found this clause so
reasonable I was trying to ask what is
happening in other jurisdiction what is
the practice and the answer was like no
this is a binding leg legal
engagement in front of the investor
that we can have certain prices for
for a period of time 10 or 15 years
which is very important for them. So you
know it's like yeah you bring the
investment and then you want to make
sure that the return are having a
bet. this is one thing. Another thing
is that there are some
incompatibilities between a PPA and the
CFD because you have to inject the
electricity in directly in the
national grid if you are entering into a
a contract for difference because it's
important also to define the terms
while you have to in a separate
mattering for the electricity
that you would like to sell it
under a PPA agreement
Of course for an investor this
this means that it really makes to
have the to take the balance of how they
can distribute their their production.
This can be a very good a very good
thing in the future and that's by the
end of the day this can be a very good
solution. Another thing because we are
discussing about the BBAs that's that's
also a solution until very recently
this this was blocked at least in the
Romanian market we didn't have this
until 2020 there was it was
forbidden to enter into a PPA you are
only allowed to inject in the Greek
basically and now we have this
opportunity but still the market
it's now it's just by now making the
steps through towards it. So because
you were talking very nicely about
acknowledgement and acceptance. I think
for this it's also the educational
factor and for this it's it's a lot
of an ongoing process. that's for
sure. For a long term we have all the
time to invest also in the training
in order to have acceptance and also
evolution in the in the legislation.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much
for this insightful explanation of
solutions and development of how to
speed up and how the knowledge is
important and awareness. I think what
I wanted what I wanted to highlight with
this CFD example is that at some point
authorities are reluctant in undertaking
responsibility because we know that
this mechanism of CFD by the end of the
day is financed by the consumers
with taking terrorist of the
electricity. So I can understand
the rational behind of the authority
that yeah in a case I will not have
sufficient funds then I will have to
be able to exit the agreement. This is
just one case and I think this is also
related to the education and how you how
you make a system inside the authority
in order to make sure that you can
engage in something for a long term.
>> Perfect. Amazing. Thank you very much.
Nicola you presented amazingly all
about the challenges related to
permitting green access land
ownership and in different
countries and what do you believe from
from your experience and from your
perspective so definitely
harmonization of legislation is required
so it's a must it needs to be speed up
on European level. however still
from a pragmatical perspective do you
believe from your experience does
cooperation with other
investors, joint ventures local
companies. So also establishing
renewable projects that are not just
PV but also in combination with
energy stoages and so on. Are these also
solutions that are pragmatical? So to
not to wait to find to get a
solution from a state but really to be
proactive when investors are
investing in the projects. Do you
believe these solutions so or from
your perspective and experience
did do you see those solutions to also
be pragmatical?
>> Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
>>
>> it's dramatically and it's actually
the way to go. that's what we are
doing what I think everybody is doing on
the one side to it's I'm coming now
again from from the investment risk side
to mitigate to split the risk for
sure but also to speed up when
it comes to establish projects.
for example, I just talked to
Adina. we are quite successful or we
do do we do have a long history in
Romania actually. why are we
successful there? Because we have a very
close cooperation with the Catholic
Church there. it's not another
investment company but locally
yes.
>> Please tell us more.
But for sure if you want to speed
up and if you want to progress u it's
one very important step to cooperate
with local
>> corporation capital
>> yes corporations
on the one side you have your local
expertise then you have the trust of the
of the population you have a
long-term perspective because both for
example do the rain an example now both
of us we do have long-term perspectives.
we do we don't have the issue with
the land ownership. We don't have to
discuss because this is then owned with
our partners. Yes, the model itself is
the way to go. We also do it actually
we do it in all our countries. We always
cooperate with others there and
especially with local companies.
Perfect. Thank you very much. So invol
early involvement in local early
involvement and cooperation with local
communities companies it's also very
important. now Leonora if I may
if you can add also from your
experience broad experience what was
the key success in Austria from a
legislation perspective that you're very
proud of? So in terms of speeding up the
the green transition
of course as we said before Austria has
really seen like a hub for green
transition in C regions so it's a role
model
it is there's never and I
know everybody in this room is aware
there's never a single bullet or one
single law that will make the transition
happen. and the experience of the
last years was rather you finish one
thing and then before you look twice you
realize but in this law something else
needs to change because this might be so
the intercon the interconnectivity in
all these subject matters is huge.
nevertheless you always have to start
somewhere. So where did we start? We
started with the renewables
expansion act which is a model to do
investment and investment subsidy but
also market premium
>> market premium market
>> market premium okay thank you sorry
losing my English through CFDs
double-sided CFDs so guaranteeing
this investment security over a
certain period and it's financed
through as you said through a premium on
the on the electricity bill. So there is
a premium on the electricity bill.
That was the core of the law. But of
course we tried to integrate a lot
of other things in it and from
transparency and grid access one of the
most fought over things in Austria
still some way to go. Yeah.
two energy communities. And this
is actually something that I would
really like to that I really like to
highlight at every step of the way
because Austria is really leading in the
European Union on energy communities. We
now have around more than 3, 000 active
energy communities and it's one of the
best ways I think or I see in Austria
to generate acceptance.
and that that needs of course because
these are new actors.
There's incumbents and here comes a new
actor. What kind of responsibilities do
they have? What kind of support schemes
do they have? how kind of disruptive can
they be? This was all huge debates, but
it really it is really a prime
model of how a new energy future can
look like. And if you participate in an
electricity in an energy community and
you see the people on their mobile
phones looking at how much PV do they
produce at the moment, this is
what they are proud of and telling their
neighbors about. not anymore how many
PS new car has, it's how much
electricity are they producing. And this
is the kind of buzz we need that will
also generate acceptance for bigger
utilities and
installations and that's why this this
is one thing where I'm really proud that
this really worked in Austria. but
yeah, it's one step in a long journey.
>> Impressive really role model. Thank you.
Leonora thank you very much.
now Rosetta we were talking you were
talking before about how important
are also for C region and green
transition in successful green
transition energy transition in the C
region also this member states of energy
community and what what are the
solutions that you see that still can
bring this so European Union and energy
community as the whole unit in C region
to develop in the same
speed. So not to fall behind or or what
are the challenges why why the
development is not equally quick what
are your experience or what would you be
your suggestions in this from this
aspect
>> yeah thank you many questions in one I
mean this is the different energy
community than the one that now we heard
about so it's one that consists of the
European Union and countries all
parties so yeah that's a be politically
correct. and u so many legislation
but that's what gives us lawyers job so
that's good. so many legislation
it's a legal battle you need to run into
a puzzle and to find your way in every
country indeed it's different and
equally difficult one thing
they have in common is they are members
of the energy community so they have
also legally binding obligations to
comply with European legislation so they
have to follow suit this legislation is
adapted to a certain extent to them when
incorporated in the energy community but
not much so this is mostly institutional
and deadlines alignment.
What is different is that it comes with
a certain delay per se because once the
EU law becomes law in the European Union
after being negotiated within the member
states tailored for French German
standards then it takes a year two
sometimes more to be incorporated in the
energy community and only afterwards
they have obligation in one or two years
to comply with it. So let's take the
renewables directive. they had to
transpose the renewables directive to by
end of 2022.
Now they are still in the process of
doing it. So obviously there is a delay
with the first step. They don't have
still the legally binding obligation to
transpose the red tree. But we are
already looking into this because we
cannot just wait. as you say the
investors are coming they want to see
the legal certainty also streamline
provisions on permitting
environmental impact assessment and then
on small hydro on PVs where you can
build how you can build what
sometimes also happened is that
obviously these these countries have
different legal culture a bit different
institutional setup different
negotiation techniques with incumbents
with companies So network
strengthening it's another point that is
very important in order even to have
the renewables energy communities to
to live there. Now we are still talking
about completely different concepts is
still about the incumbents
moving towards renewables. So I don't
know you have in Macedonia ESM is
investing into wind power plants. to
the biggest investors are still the
former incumbents and then what is good
is as I said moving towards the market
premiums moving towards CFDs and
commercial PPIs are not yet there
in Serbia you have CFDs but we are still
moving for instance in Albania you have
premiums that will be converted to CFDs
once the market becomes liquid so when I
mean the chicken and egg problem so when
is that when do you take this decision
and then at the same time investment in
the networks. what I was seeing now
for instance even in my country I come
from Macedonia they are telling me yeah
you cannot necessarily invest in your PV
on the rooftop because our distribution
grids is saturated fine then
invest in the grids. we have also
the obligations also these countries
have the obligation to have and
sector coupling was mentioned before.
there is now the electricity regulation
which also these are all of them are
NE members. So the NE is taking them
into the union development plan and they
have to do the network development the
national level. This is not necessarily
what they see happening and the
contracts as I said these are
when you talk about PPAs until very
recently but even still in some of the
countries you talk about PPAs backed
by the state. So you have the market
operator paying a fixed premium
and so on. So this is completely
different than a commercial PPA
aluminium company with a generator of
renewables. So these are still concepts
that are coming. I don't say it's back.
It comes with a delay, but they are
making their way to be there and the
electricity legislation. they
have not completed the transposition of
the clean energy package and in the EU
last year there has been changes already
into the electricity directive and
regulation precisely for this
introducing CFDs PPA in the electricity
regulation itself. So let's say there is
experience there are the European
mistakes from which we are learning but
we are also making our own and yeah
it takes time but it's a way to go.
>> Thank you. Thank you very much. Now I
have a very quick question for all of
you just yes and no so that we still see
where how passionate are with how
passionate are we about a green
transition after talking about the
challenges and solutions. So why do you
believe from your perspective coming
from different representing different
stakeholders despite all the various
challenges do you believe CE regions is
still very attractive for investors and
for privates capital to invest into
the market despite the risks and
uncertainties do yes or no? Yes,
definitely. Yes.
>> Thank you. For sure. As I mentioned,
>> you managed to get me to a very short
last answer. Yes.
>> Okay. So, shall I say no?, just
to contradict. No.
But I actually wanted to
say a full sentence besides this yes and
no. it's that as you said, the laws
are as good as they're enforced. Their
enforcement is good. So, if they're not
implemented, they can be just perfect
and not work. So we have the imperfect
laws but yes I think we still attract
visitors.
>> Perfect. Thank you very much. before
closing this amazing panel session
please I will invite all of you to give
a key message for the audience. So
key solution or message or suggestion so
for audience to keep in mind
and stay passionate about green energy
transition please [snorts]
>> or a takeaway. What should be a
takeaway? Well, I think the energy
transition is possible only by mixing
our backgrounds and our professionalism.
I would say this is something that I'm
also doing because I'm a lawyer by
origin but I'm also a student in TU
where I'm studying
master in science. I think it's it's
very much inter interconnecting
area where you cannot progress without
the expertise of the others and in
terms of keeping excite excited about
energy transition. I think we should all
hear the thoughts of the engineers,
the thoughts of the lawyers, the
thoughts of the financial team. I think
it's very I'm talking because I'm coming
from a corporation but I'm sure on the
on the state level it's also very
similar but this cooperation is very
important.
>> Thank you.
>> Thank you.
>> yeah from our perspective I would say
we have to act quick and fast when it
comes to a transparent permitting
aligned permitting system. Also when it
comes to the grid connections then
everything should be anchored in a
crossber
collaboration and of course under under
the under the guideline guideline
of EU and national regulations.
then I would say our con the
instit our public institutions they
should show that they really want to do
it they really want to do it with
speed and full engagement and I think
if all these framework or
challenges which we were talking about
are overcome or at least the
signal is given from the public
institution then the private investors
are coming and I think we all
should stick to it, be patient and go
for it. there's big potential left as
we mentioned already at the beginning.
The CE market is under utilized I would
say. yeah, let's go for it.
>> Thank you very much. So be proactive and
cooperate. Thank you.
As I mentioned before, I'm totally
convinced renewables is a disruptive
technology and this will this is the
future. If you look at global
investments, this is where the money
goes. the question is at what speed
and at what scale. And so if we talk
about the authorities or the policy
makers
never underestimate there's different
kind of policy makers and there's
different kinds of people in this
in this and there's one part of the
policy field that's trying to make this
transition an ideological fight
>> just because we don't want renewables no
matter what it means. They're trying to
make an ideological fight of this and
our common task is to make sure that the
rest of the political spectrum doesn't
fall into this trap.
That's that means whoever can help and
that's all of you to say this is
technically possible. It's economically
viable and it's socially accepted.
this will help for the rest of the
political spectrum. So also those who
are not as passionate about the energy
transition as I am to move along. And so
that's why I said I end with I end
with a thank you and a request. So
that's my request. stay passionate
and speak about it to those we need
to convince. Perfect. We will stay
passionate. Thank you. And yeah,
building on this it is
important sort of awareness and
information sharing and starting from
what you said Adina and now the last
statement that's a bit our destiny
know as lawyers we always work with
engineers and when I did my PhD on
energy law there was no energy law as a
as a topic at that time so you always
work with engineers and the first thing
was with market liberalization the
system will fall apart don't touch here
don't don't this is not possible. We
don't do this. It's the same now. No
know with renewables. we see what
happened in Spain a couple weeks ago. We
had something similar in Macedonia last
week. A few months ago was Montenegro.
So like we really need to see also what
is then keeping the system. in
order to sell the story of renewables
and transition you need to know also
what the base load is what the
alternatives are and you can so I
believe also and what I see the policy
maker are struggling with is to sell
this to the voters and saying yeah we
are closing these are countries
where I work with one or three
thermal power plants mostly on coal
ligignite and then you're telling to
your voters we are closing this and we
will rely on import because we
have then the wind and the sun but when
they don't blow and shine. we import and
don't worry now you move to heat
pumps but yeah your heating bill will be
700 euro a month and this is much more
than salary and this is what happens in
some of these countries that I work so I
think also showing that there is
alternative that will keep the system
running when there is no sun and wind
the stoages the batteries so all the new
technologies that are now also
getting regulated in these countries I
think this is equally important
>> thank you very much yes so changes are
always difficult But it's important to
keep going and to stay passionate and to
learn from each other and to cooperate.
Thank you very much for this amazing
panel and thank you very much. Thank
you
everybody. This big applause for you
amazing panel.
we invite you to the panel to speak here
for an official picture please. And
everybody invited to take tacos for
lunch time.
Just a moment.
>> Okay, here we go.
>> Oh, of course.
>> Of course. Vegas first.?
Thank you.
Thank you so much.

Enabling regulatory frameworks for Renewables in CEE - Panel Discussion 1- TEB 1st Forum

Regional permitting schemes hinder progress

Societal acceptance is key

Private sector drives innovation

Energy communities boost acceptance

CEE markets lag EU directives

Legal certainty remains critical