Mediterranean Solar Plan: towards renewable energy and energy efficiency in the Mediterranean

Madrid, 28 August, 2013. Teresa Ribeiro, UfM Deputy Secretary General for Energy, gave a keynote speech on the Mediterranean Solar Plan (MSP) during the Closing Conference of the PWMSP (Paving the Way for the Mediterranean Solar Plan) project, which will end its activities by 31 August 2013. The conference presented the project’s results among the various stakeholders of the project, and reflected on how these results can be used in the future to achieve the objectives of the Mediterranean Solar Plan. For three years PWMSP has provided a platform for the regional debate on the MSP and supported it with studies covering a wide range of related issues including the financial, legal and regulatory framework as well as electricity network analysis and sustainable energy policy development.

It is expected that the Ministerial Meeting on Energy, foreseen to take place on 11 December 2013 in Brussels, will officially endorse the MSP Master Plan, which will constitute the first comprehensive official strategy document exclusively concerned with region-specific renewable energy and energy efficiency issues. The MSP Master Plan is a joint mid-term policy roadmap that will provide clear guidance on what needs to be done to develop dynamic, regionally integrated and self-sustained markets for renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies, strengthen the inter-connections between the electricity systems of the member states and thereby facilitate the roll-out of safe, secure, clean, non-exhaustible, and non-polluting energies and pave the way to a larger exchange of green electricity around and across the Mediterranean.

The MSP Master Plan will crucially complement and enhance the many other existing or emerging strategies and activities at both national and international levels. It will also provide a basis and framework for the other activities which the UfM is pursing in the energy field, namely helping to propose, develop, and implement:

•  Pilot projects allowing for a testing of policies and instruments
• A combination of financial support tools allowing for a targeted reduction of financing costs
• Common working platforms for a systemic exchange of experience and know-how
• Capacity development and other cooperation mechanism facilitating the transfer of knowhow and the    development of capabilities at all levels.

During the conference, the Deputy Secretary General for Energy met with important stakeholders of the MSP process such as RCREEE (Regional Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency), UN ESCWA (United Nations Economic and Social Committee for Western Asia), Med-TSO (Mediterranean Transmission System Operators), and OME (Observatoire Méditerranéen de l’Energie), among others.