Mediterranean Renewable Energy Program (MEDREP)

The two principal objectives of the programme are:



- to provide modern energy services particularly to rural populations;



- to contribute to the climate change mitigation by increasing the share of renewable energy technologies in the energy mix in the region.



In this perspective, the programme aims at developing a sustainable renewable energy market system in the greater Mediterranean Region, removing project, policy and trade barriers.

With a view to linking capabilities and market between developed and developing Countries throughout the Region and beyond, the program is built on three main sub-projects:



- tailoring of financial instruments and mechanisms to support projects;



- strengthening of policy frameworks and removing barriers to projects development;



- building a stronger private sector infrastructure, considering the positive role of ¡§Tradable Renewable Certificates¡¨ and ¡§Certified Emission Reductions¡¨.



These sub-projects aim to strengthen existing networks while favouring the creation of new relations between stakeholders.



Specific objectives:



delivering electricity to isolated rural populations, based on village-scale mini-grids;

accelerating the integration of REs on the national electricity grids with the objective of reaching grid stabilisation and meeting supply-demand balance;

addressing the global approach of REs introduction (mainly solar but also geothermal energy) in the building sector in coherence with the energy efficiency policy (the results of the MEDA/Solar thermal technologies Dissemination programme in the building sector will be integrated);

desalinating sea water, in order to increase drinking water supply and water availability for irrigation;

increasing agricultural water pumping by solar, wind and biomass powered water pumps;

disseminating cooling systems for the food conservation, powered by renewable, in farms and fisheries;

addressing, in the grid-connected urban and tourist areas, the household and the community demand for lighting, food and drugs cooling, access to the communication networks, using solar home systems, small wind turbines, biogas and biomass power technologies;

creating joint ventures and other manufacturing, assembly and distribution/installation capabilities in developing countries, so that they gain the maximum economic benefit from the Initiative; promoting certification / standardisation programmes for RE equipments.



These objectives will be reached by the implementation of innovative pilot projects to be considered a catalogue of best practices to be replicated, increasing the share of RE options available through already feasible RE power plants like wind farm, biomass co-combustion and hydro plants.