NEW ENERGY PARADIGM – HOW TO RECONCILIATE SUSTAINABILITY AND FEASIBILITY
Project leader: Prof. Saša Žiković, PhD - EFRI
Team members:
Prof. Nela Vlahinić Lenz, PhD - EFRI
Prof. Ivana Tomas Žiković, PhD - EFRI
Prof. Dario Maradin, PhD - EFRI
Ivan Gržeta, MBA - PhD student EFRI
Summary
Although reforms in the energy
sector started in the 1990s, they have not yet been fully implemented, with
even the most developed EU members not having fully implemented EU directives
related to the single electricity and natural gas market. The problem of
competitiveness of renewable energy sources in the open electricity market is
one of the main problems in formulating national energy policy as well as
supranational policies of the EU itself. Through our research, the
competitiveness of various types of power plants will be analysed with regard
to capital costs, operating costs and fuel costs as well as wholesale
electricity prices and incentives for renewable energy in selected EU
countries. Given the great changes expected in energy and all other sectors due
to energy transition towards the low-carbon and sustainable economy, the area
of research also relates to the current energy efficiency issues in the EU
countries. Furthermore, we will analyse the changes in the portfolio of primary
and secondary energy sources in the "new" EU countries, given the
growing importance of natural gas and its derivatives. The key area of the
analysis relates to the opportunities created by the development of
technologies that enable gas transport with the use of other logistics
infrastructure other than the conventional gas pipeline. Since the construction
of a new gas infrastructure is a time consuming and expensive process, the development
of LNG (liquefied natural gas) and CNG (compressed natural gas) technologies to
circumvent geographic and geopolitical obstacles represents an outstanding
opportunity to improve the energy security of CEE countries. Securing the
alternative direction of natural gas supply consequently leads to stronger
negotiating positions of the CEE countries in relation to the major gas
suppliers, such as Norway and Russia. We will analyse how have the individual
European countries approached this issue and what can be expected in the
future.
