Best practices in renewable energy and energy efficiency in Central Asia focus of OSCE expert workshop in Vienna

VIENNA, 12 December 2017 – Best practices in renewable energy and energy efficiency in Central Asia were the focus of a two-day expert workshop that ended with a site visit to a waste heat incineration plant today in Vienna. The workshop was organized by the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities in close co-operation with the Joint Research Centre of the European Union.

”The OSCE has a comparative advantage as a platform for addressing energy security issues and reducing energy risks in the OSCE area,” said the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities, Vuk Žugić. “The OSCE is the world´s largest regional security organization, with many of the world´s largest energy producer, consumer and transit countries among its participating States and the advantage of already well established field operations in Central Asia.”

The event was an interactive forum for sharing experiences and best practices for safe integration of renewable energy into electricity grids, modelling solar and wind maps, achieving energy efficiency in district heating and using renewable energy as a motor for green growth.

“The use of renewable energy is above all a regional issue and concerns particularly the power sector, which has a large impact not only on environment and the energy policy, but also on investment plans and consumer preferences,” said Yedil Kopenpov, chairman of the board of the joint stock operation Kazakhstan Operator for Electricity and Capacity Market.

More than 40 participants took part in the workshop, including experts from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan as well as from the European Union, the Austrian Institute for Technology, the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis, the Energy Community and Wienenergie.

The workshop was a follow-up to the Second Preparatory Meeting of the 25th Economic and Environmental Forum, "Green Economy as Catalyst for Sustainable Development, Security and Stability", which took place in Astana, Kazakhstan, on l5 and 16 June 2017.