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EUROPEAN & ATLANTIC ISLANDS

26 October 2022 @ 15:00 - 16:30

SPEEDING UP RENEWABLES IN EUROPEAN & ATLANTIC ISLANDS

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Abstract

Decarbonization is key to limit the worst effects of climate change, which hits islands harder, but it’s not only an environmental matter. It is about financials and security. In most cases, islands have to import diesel to run their power generators, incurring very high costs and exposing to supply risk. Renewables are already much cheaper compared to diesel and they can produce power directly on the island. Thus, not only renewables allow islands to save huge financial resources, but can also help them achieve energy security while decarbonizing and create significant synergies among sectors. However, deploying the most efficient technologies in the various sectors of the islands’ economy requires appropriate regulatory frameworks that enable their use. Today, regulations for energy supply on islands are obsolete and biased in favour of fossil fuels.

Utility companies are generally compensated for the additional costs they have to incur to supply electricity to the islanders, in order for them to pay the same price as the inhabitants of the mainland. In the EU, these additional costs are paid by all citizens of a country through a component in the bill. For example, Italy spends around 60 million euros a year for this compensation for its smaller non-interconnected islands with 200,000 inhabitants. Spain spends around 1 billion euros for the Balearic and the Canary Islands, and Greece even more. This compensation does not motivate utilities to endorse the transition, but on the contrary, it incentivizes them to continue using diesel.

With the “Minor Islands” Decree, Italy has adopted an innovative instrument to incentivize renewables in non-interconnected islands. The decree in fact provides for remuneration through a feed-in tariff calculated in relation to the cost of fuel that is avoided (including the cost of transport) thanks to renewables. This incentive scheme does not involve additional costs for the government but is funded through the budget already allocated to the supply of diesel that is not used. Every country – developing countries as well – could adopt this mechanism, using the budget saved by reducing the use of diesel. From a political point of view, the measure is particularly interesting as it allows the distribution of the budget – which today is allocated to utilities to cover their higher costs – among individual citizens, allowing them to achieve greater independence with clean energy sources.

In this workshop, the Italian “Minor Islands” Decree will be presented in details alongside other policies to promote renewables on islands from energy authorities of Greece and Spain to explore their potential for replication in all European islands and beyond.

Agenda (CEST Time)

15.00 Introduction & Moderation

Gianni Chianetta – Director & Founder, GTI

15.10 Presentations

Andrea Galliani – Deputy Director of the Wholesale Markets and Environmental Sustainability Department, Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks and the Environment (ARERA)
Dionysios Papachristou – Scientific Expert, Electrical Engineer – Director of Press & Public Relations Office, Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE), Greece

15.40 Round Table with the speakers above and the following:

Jan Cornillie – Project director, Clean energy for EU islands secretariat
Nidaa Botmi – Project Officer, Islands Commission of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR)
Enrique Rodríguez de Azero – UNEF (Spanish Solar PV Association)
George Kremlis – Principal Advisor to the Greek Prime Minister on energy, climate, environment and circular economy