Why Conference now?
The entire region is facing problems with energy supply and high prices. At the same time, opportunities and chances have not been used to involve local communities, citizens, and businesses in the process of decarbonization, the construction of renewable energy sources, and thus the increase in energy supply from local sources, which can have a significant effect on the security of supply, energy independence and increased production and consumption of energy from local sources.
In the previous and this year, the countries of the region (Serbia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina) passed or are in the process of adopting legal and executive regulations that enable local communities, citizens, and businesses to establish citizens energy communities, i.e., renewable energy communities.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republika Srpska and the Brčko District have passed the corresponding laws. They are preparing by-laws, while in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the related regulations are in the draft phase. Given that the entire process is at the beginning, it is necessary to establish a dialogue immediately, exchange positive and negative experiences from countries that have already advanced with this process, and establish long-term cooperation between interested parties for successful and sustainable implementation of energy communities in the region and speed up the whole process, while informing and educating the public about the advantages of energy communities.
Therefore, RESET - Center for Sustainable Energy Transition from Sarajevo and the Heinrich Boll Foundation, together with a media partnership with Balkan Green energy news, decided to organize a one-day conference on this topic with the primary goal of opening a dialogue on this topic and through the conclusions of the meeting, give recommendations and proposals as a whole process to speed up and efficiently and effectively to make citizens energy communities as soon as possible an essential factor in the energy transition and the decarbonization process, especially in a situation where it is already known that problems in energy supply will be present in the following years.
At the conference, in addition to guests from Greece and Croatia who will present experiences from their countries in the implementation of citizens' energy communities, representatives of local communities from BiH, representatives of competent ministries and regulatory agencies for energy, power companies, as well as representatives of the non-governmental sector, international organizations involved in energy transition projects in BiH and representatives of the businesses and financial organizations as well as local experts in the domain of this issue.