What is the project about?

The initial idea of the project came from the National Energy Strategy and the previous climate change studies such as the Albania’s First National Communication and Technology Needs Assessment, which do promote and recommend Solar Water Heating (SWH) as one of the promising technologies to reduce electricity and fuel wood consumption with a significant contribution towards greenhouse gas emission reduction.

According to the mentioned studies, over 70% of domestic hot water needs of the household and service sector in Albania is supplied by electric boilers, while the energy demand for hot water in Albania is projected to grow from 600 GWh in 2000 to 875 GWh in 2015, in the residential sector alone.

Upon Government of Albania’s request to increase the share of solar thermal energy in the country, UNDP and GEF support solar water heating technology through legal and market based instruments. UNDP in cooperation with the Ministry of Energy and Industry and the Ministry of Environment is working to reach the target of 75,000 m2 of new installed collector area over the duration of the project, as well as an annual sale of 20,000 m2 with expected continuing growth to reach the set target of 520,000 m2 of total installed SWH capacity by 2020. This is estimated to correspond to over 300 MW of avoided, new fossil fuel power capacity by using solar instead of electricity for water heating, and estimated cumulative GHG reduction potential of over 800,000 tons of CO2 by the end 2020.  

The sustainable growth of the market will be secured by an i) enabling policy framework, ii) increased awareness and advocacy iii) available financing mechanism iv) supply of reliable technology and services and v) replication.

Other components of the Project:
i)    A Comprehensive, Climate-Resilient Approach to Sustainable Hydropower for Albania (Small Hydro Power Plants – SEA

The objective of the proposed project supported by the Delivery Results Together Fund is to support the development of a strategic environmental assessment (SEA) addressing the development of the SHPP sector at the regional (basin) level in Albania. The project will strengthen the capacity of the Government of Albania to integrate SEAs into energy and environmental decision-making, and it will provide valuable information that is urgently needed by all stakeholders.

ii)    Municipal energy tracking PLATFORM IN Albania  

A new and innovative initiative is supported by the UNDP Catalytic Fund aiming the establishment of an efficient energy management system and other management tools to monitor and control energy use by municipalities, organization of energy audits, implementation of low-cost EE/RE measures (demo-projects), preparation of bankable projects, facilitating their financing through existing EE/RE Facilities in Albania and the upscale of the project at the national level to enable financing through the Green Climate Fund.

What have we accomplished so far?

• Promotion of legal and market based approaches to increase use of energy efficient and innovative solar water heating technology has continued: the RES Action Plan and the RES Law are endorsed (January, 2016 and February, 2017 accordingly) ensuring the accordance with the European Directives and the new Power Sector Law; the Energy Efficiency law and the Energy Performance in Buildings law got approved (December 2015 and November, 2016 accordingly). Following and due to the very fruitful cooperation with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy (previously Ministry of Energy and Industry), quite a heavy work is undertaken to make operational the established EE Fund to secure sustainability of actions to transform SWH market: the statute and operational manual is drafted that way, the EE Fund to potentially get qualified as the national authority under the Green Climate Fund.
• At the end of June, 2017 the cumulative SWH systems is 209,745 m2, the annual sale has reached at 21,701 m2 resulting to more than 1,160,452 tCO2 reduction (indirect CO2 reduction over the lifetime of solar collectors). In terms of evolution (growth) of the penetration rate for the SWH, it has gone from 17.9 m2/1000 inhabitants in 2009 to 74.5 m2/1000 inhabitants in 2017.
• A considerable number of trainings are delivered to representatives of the SWH supply chain (Arch., Eng., Instructors, students, municipal staffs, etc.). The cooperation with Tirana Polytechnic University is enhanced to provide a Design Manual of the SWH systems for the needs of the Scientific Masters’ Programs on Renewable Energy and associated with training courses to students of Energy, Environment, Architecture, and Building engineers. More interventions are expected in public buildings with high consumption of hot water and follow-up the activities with the private sector uptake towards solar energy for water heating. The establishment of the EE Fund and the endorsement of the national Action Plan on RES would become important drivers for the sustainability of pilot projects and SWH market transformation. The monitoring program for large solar thermal systems in public institutions has continued: the join findings together with the ones from the monitoring of the hot water consumption in the Albanian families, have served for the publishing in March 2017 “Best Practice from Albanian Solar Water Heating Project/Case studies”;
• In the frame of the collaboration with the local municipalities, 55 public institutions with high demand for hot water have Solar Water Heating systems with an overall installed area of 633 m2, saving around 70% of the energy used to meet the demand for hot water. In 2017 only, after the preparation of the projects’ design, SWH systems are installed by the following institutions:
  •  Day-care Centre No. 1 and 3 in Durres, the Dormitory of the High School “Mjeshtria Sportive” and Kindergarten  “7 Marsi” in Durres;
  • The Multi-functional Centre in Saranda, Daily Elderly Centre in Saranda,  Kindergarten  No. 4 and 5 in Saranda, and Kindergarten No. 1 in Ksamil (Saranda);
  • Kindergarten  No.1 in Himara;
  • Kindergarten  No. 1 and Day-care Centre No. 1 in Rrogozhina;
  • Day-care Centre No. 1, in Lushnja and Kindergarten No. 1/4, Kindergarten No.2, and Kindergarten No. 3 in Lushnja;
  • Kindergarten No. 1 in Divjaka;
  • Day-care Centre No.2 and 15 në Vlorë, Kindergarten No. 9 in Vlorë; and
  • Kindergarten No. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 in Fier.
• The development of a strategic environmental assessment (SEA) addressing the development of the SHPP sector in Albania will strengthen the capacity of the Government of Albania to integrate SEAs into energy and environmental decision-making, and it will provide valuable information that is urgently needed by all stakeholders. Following the Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Energy and Industry (today Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy), the following is accomplished:

i.The Strategic Environmental Assessment for the SHPPs sector in Albania in line with the objectives of the draft Energy Strategy of the country and the Field Survey/Review Report for the selected sample of SHPPs in all water basins (50 built/in operation and 20 planned);

ii.Three rounds of presentations/consultations with the representatives of public institutions and civil society respectively in April, May and December, 2017 on the prepared SEA in line with the objectives of the draft Energy Strategy of the country;

iii.The GIS database with all the available data of SHPPs, including the road infrastructure, power transmission and distribution lines, and environmental data with regards to the protected areas.

• The proposed municipal energy tracer platform/tool is expected to contribute to the establishment of an efficient energy management system and other management tools to monitor and control energy use by municipalities, organization of energy audits, implementation of low-cost EE/RE measures (demo-projects), preparation of bankable projects, facilitating their financing through existing EE/RE Facilities in Albania. A strong cooperation with Durres Municipality is established: as South-South cooperation, the experience of Croatia is shared via a hands on training organized on EMIS with representatives from Durres Municipality, the National Agency on Natural Resources and the Ministry of Energy and Industry (today Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy) and a successful exchange visit organized to profit from EMIS implementation and the experiences/lessons learnt in the frame of the Croatian Eco Fund with participation from high representatives of line ministries (in charge for energy, environment and finance affairs) and Durres Municipality. The work has continued with the joint selection of 4 public buildings, which energy consumption data are gathered and introduced to an EMIS mock version (out of which due recommendations are drawn). Further, prefeasibility studies/project proposals for further support by the development agencies with emphasis on increasing energy efficiency are drafted for the following 4 public buildings:
  • High School “Gjergj Kastrioti”;
  • Day-care Centre No. 1;
  • Kindergarten “1 Maji” and
  • Special elementary school of children with disabilities.
• In addition, knowledge on writing project proposals for energy efficient public buildings is transferred to local and central institutions via a dedicated training organized in Durres (25 May, 2017) with representatives from Durres Municipality and National Agency on Natural Resources (NANR).