Montenegro

The International Workshop on Energy Efficiency in Buildings

UNDP, through its pilot initiative Private Sector Partnership for Sustainable Development, will draw on this nascent national expertise pool of energy auditors to produce reports for Hypo Alpe Adria Bank and ProMonte that would highlight the potential for energy savings within their premises and investment scheme for achieving those.

On that occasion H.E. Mr. Branimir Gvozdenović, Minister for Economic Development said: “In Montenegro, we soon need to start to build in accordance with the international standards, which will enable us to spend much less energy than we used to spend before. Analyses have shown that there is a possibility to achieve savings worth millions in a short period of time, which is important not only from the financial aspect but also from the stability aspect of the whole system. In order to complete this work we have to prepare the construction operative and entrepreneurs. We will do this through courses and workshops for all the involved in this work, including  project creation, project documentation, construction of buildings. We expect help from donors, involvement of the University… The Ministry for Economic Development will set aside a significant amount of money for the realization of the project ‘ The Energy Efficiency Year’. We have already formed a team that will work on this very serious job. Experts and donors are on this team. Beside energy efficiency, we work very intensely with the Electric Power Industry of Montenegro to reduce energy loss and to optimalise the overall system. With additional capitalization of Electric Power Industry of Montenegro and investments, we will create conditions for losses to be below 20%. The plan is to get losses down below 15% in the next two years. The final aim is to get them drop below 10%, which is a standard in the developed world. For this we need around 100 million Euros,” said Minister Gvozdenović, estimating that this is a worthwhile investment.

“We cannot provide the funds on our own, but we count on our partners who are ready to invest. The project that will last ten months will start in October, and it envisages realization of a number of activities, followed by promotional events every month. We expect help from donors regarding the use of wind energy, solar energy and bio-mass, and we want to fulfill completely the EU directives in this field,” Minister Gvozdenović concluded.

“It is difficult to overestimate the importance of this workshop because global warming and energy efficiency are on the agenda of highest dialogues of General Assembly meetings, and it is in the minds of business organizations and citizens of all countries,” said Mr. Alexander Avanesov, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative to Montenegro. “UNDP and other UN organizations are particularly interested in this topic because its biggest impact is on vulnerable groups of the population. Also, we can see that the European Commission and other organizations plan to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, to increase the energy efficiency, and they are really targeted at the issue of climate change and challenges of global warming. As UN and UNDP we are also trying to contribute here in Montenegro to this work. One of the immediate examples is the UN Eco Building which we are going to construct soon. Our architects and engineers are working on the final design of this building, and with the support of the Austrian Government, the Government of Montenegro and the Mayor’s office of Podgorica we will have the first eco building in the region.”

“Although the climate change and global warming and the situation in energy sector are bringing a lot of challenges which every country faces - at the same time they bring a lot of opportunities, and we see huge enthusiasm of business sector, public organizations, academia, international organizations to tackle this issue and to find a way out. UNDP will assist the Government of Montenegro to deliver on several elements which are part of the national energy strategy, and one of those is of course energy efficiency and the other one is the renewable energy development,” said Mr. Avanesov.

Mr. Orjan Tiegen of Norwegian company ENSI emphasized that their company intends to improve the local capacities for energy audits in buildings by training 15 to 20 local experts in this field.

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The UN Secretary General recently stated the climate change is the ‘defining issue of our era.’  European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso, in launching the new EU proposal package on climate change, concurred, stating that ‘responding to the challenges of climate change is the ultimate political test of our generation.’ The said package sets the EU on path to delivering reduction of green house gasses by at least 20%, increase to 20% the share of renewable energies in the energy consumption. Most significantly, it calls for 20% saving of energy consumption by 2020 through energy efficiency. This would save an estimated €100 billion and cut emissions by almost 800 million tonnes a year- essentially one of the key ways in which the CO2 emission savings can be achieved. In other words, global warming and climate change at the same time provide an opportunity for both businesses and nations to work on becoming eco efficient and in this way increase their competitiveness in the market place, protect the depleting natural resources, and engage in responsible entrepreneurship and the European Union is taking a global lead in harnessing this opportunity. 

An Ecological State by its Constitutional designation, Montenegro is blessed with natural resources that can be utilized to climate-proof the country while at the same time providing a reliable energy for all its citizens. The recently adopted National Energy Development Strategy recognizes the increase in renewable source of energy along with the increases in energy efficiency as key developments that would improve the country’s energy balance sheet, reduce its dependence on imported electricity, and provide a dependable and reliable energy to its market.  

UNDP will assist the Government of Montenegro in both endeavors.  In cooperation with the Ministry for Economic Development a project will be implemented that seeks to develop small hydro power plants that will focus on improving the tendering procedure, building national capacity for the Ministry’s Unit for Energy Efficiency and the Renewable Energy, and selecting 4 ideal locations for small hydro power based on the geological, ecological, economic, social, and hydrological data obtained nationally. 

In addition, in compliance with the Energy Efficiency 2008 Year that the Ministry has declared earlier, UNDP began a pilot project in this area with our private sector partners Hypo Alpe Adria Bank and ProMonte, and the Norwegian Government. This project will deliver energy audits for the buildings of the two companies that will highlight the amount of energy they spend in their premises, potentials for savings, and an investment scheme for achieving the savings. Through this initiative, UNDP is also providing the first employment opportunity to the first group of Montenegro’s energy auditors who are currently undergoing a certification process provided by the Norwegian government.

The industry and business sector in Montenegro (excluding metallurgy and associated services) consumes some 21.5% of the total energy supply. There are some estimations that claim energy efficiency measures can lead up to 25% to 30% in the energy consumption. From purely sustainability perspective, the European Bank for Research and Development has shown that economically saving a kilowatt of energy is several a thousand to ten thousand times more cost effective than paying for the generation of a new  kilowatt of energy. Through such savings, the business sector is increasing its competitiveness since it is producing the same or more with less primary inputs (energy in this case), while at the same time it is using its wealth in a socially responsible and environmentally effective manner, working toward mitigation of the growing threat of climate change to the global environment.    

If Montenegro succeeds in combining the Government’s initiative in increasing energy efficiency through adopting the appropriate measures and EU directives with the corporate social responsibility and eco efficiency that Hypo Alpe Group and ProMonte are demonstrating, it will contribute its fair share toward the new global Green Revolution.