The FINANCIAL — Georgia was named the country in the Caucasus region with the biggest potential of becoming a main player on the hydropower exporting market at the Caucasus Environmental Infrastructure and Green Energy Investment and Finance Summit, the two-day international investment forum that took place last week. The European Finance Convention based in Brussels organized the summit in Georgia with the cooperation of the European Commission and international financial institutions.
Caucasus Environmental Infrastructure and Green Energy Investment & Finance Summit 2009 covered the key topics of power, that is, renewable energy, development of regional energy policies, energy transport and environmental infrastructure.
Focusing on Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia, the planned summit discussed the following topics: Key infrastructure investment opportunities; Environment compliant infrastructure/energy development; Renewable energy sector boom; Financing the next decade’s needs; Regional integration and market regulation; IT/e-Government developments as well as the mining sector.
Azerbaijani, Georgian and Armenian high-ranking officials met in the Radisson SAS Iveria Hotel Tbilisi to discuss the environmental aspects of regional energy policies in the Southern Caucasus region.
“Caucasus Environmental Infrastructure and Green Energy Investment & Finance Summit 2009 provided a non-official platform for the ministers and government officials of the three countries to meet with international financial institutions and private sector representatives,” Cyrille Arnould, Head of Front Office, Global Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Fund (GEEREF), European Investment Bank, Luxembourg, told The FINANCIAL.
According to the European Finance Convention they planned to hold an investment forum in Georgia in October 2008 but the August war and the global financial crisis forced them to delay the date of the meeting.
“This conference was held to promote new investments and renewable energy which includes hydro power and geothermal wind, and to promote energy efficiency. The prospective of Georgia is tremendous in the frame of energy efficiency and the potential of Georgia to become a major exporter of hydropower in the near future is very real,” says John Hansen, Director of the office of Energy and Environment, USAIDCaucasus.
Official Carrier of the summit was airline company AirBaltic which gave as a present two round trip tickets from Riga to one of the participants of the conference who found tickets on his seat. The winner will be available to choose 1 from 60 destinations.
“The Caucasus is a very suitable location to use renewable energies and hydro powers. Georgia has great potential to become one of the main exporters of hydropower,” says Elshan Asadov, Secretary , Tariff Council of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
As well as Georgia, the European Finance Convention plans to hold investment forums this year in Denmark, Libya, Montenegro, Austria and Lebanon.
“Georgia has one of the largest untapped hydropower potentials in Europe. Naturally there is a sound basis to develop hydro projects in Georgia and identify competitive and economically feasible projects. State energy policy identifies development of hydro resources and other renewable sources of energy as the priority. Increasing demand and export markets in the region, especially in Turkey, are considered as important factors to motivate investors to implement significant investments in this area,” The Ministry of Energy of Georgia reports.
The Ministry of Energy of Georgia says that the Government of Georgia has identified a number of hydro projects with various designed capacities. 80 potential sites of up to 100 MW fall under the state programme Renewable Energy 2008. Three large-scale projects Khudoni HPP, Namakhvani and Oni Cascades with total capacity of 1,500 MW are under development and ready to be tendered out.
“We have many projects that are now just waiting for investors,” says Mariam Valishvili, First Deputy Minister of Energy.
Upcoming Euroconvention conferences:
Financing and Investing in Climate Change
Renewable Energy, Environmental Resource Management and Energy Efficiency
23.09.2009-24.09.2009
Copenhagen – Marriott Copenhagen Hotel
Infrastructure Investment & PPP Finance in the Western Balkans
30.09.2009-01.10.2009
Tirana – Sheraton Tirana Hotel.
The Libya Business & Investment Summit 2009
05.10.2009-06.10.2009
Tripoli – Corinthia Bab Africa Hotel
Investing and Financing the Municipal & Regional Utilities Market in CEE, SEE and the Caucasus Air, Water and Waste Management
28.10.2009-29.10.2009
Bucharest – Intercontinental Hotel
Russia & CIS Healthcare Infrastructure Summit 2009
15.12.2009-16.12.2009
Moscow – Moscow Hilton Leningradskaya.
The MENA Infrastructure Investment & Finance Summit 2009
15.12.2009-16.12.2009
Beirut
Written By Tako Khelaia
Discussion about this post