The energy sector plays a central role in the EU economy in terms of current size and growth potential in the medium term. The demand for technology and innovative solutions is growing especially due to existing regulations at EU levels and also because of society’s increasing interest for environmentally low impact solutions. In order to be able to further develop the offer for new technologies and innovative solutions, it is necessary to build an entrepreneurship-friendly environment, able to recognize and fulfil the expectations of the energy sector and the community in general.
Developing and supporting entrepreneurship in the area of renewable energies, by utilising research outputs and competences, is also essential for reaching the Europe 2020 objectives, more so in terms of energy consumption and energy savings, thus having direct impacts on Malta’s economic development, wealth creation and employment.
This approach is at the basis of ENERGEIA, an EU funded project under the MED Programme, which aims to design a friendly environment for entrepreneurship in the renewable energy sector in the Mediterranean area.
The need of more effective ways of supporting entrepreneurship in the field of renewable energy represents an enormous asset for a sustainable economic development. The project will also help Malta reach its commitment as part of Directive 2009/28/EC of the European Parliament, that of reducing consumption of primary energy by 10% by 2020.
ENERGEIA is composed of eight organisations with relevant experience in designing and implementing policies in entrepreneurship development and promotion of the energy sector. Most of them also provide support and advice to innovative start-ups that originate from research institutions. The overall objective of the project is the development of concrete tools that are ready to meet the challenges of supporting nascent businesses in the renewable energy sector. Starting from the outputs collected from partners in their past experiences, the project will carry on research, networking and pilot actions on the main fields of interest for the renewable energy sector in the regions involved.
The first step of the project, which has been running since April 2013, was to define the “energy landscape”, according to common guidelines, that allowed partners to build up a clearer picture of what are the current needs and challenges of companies operating within the renewable energy sector. This step is now nearing its completion, with the collection of all data from the partners and the identification of relevant good practices will be shared within and outside the project consortium. This knowledge will then be mainstreamed into two pilot actions, dedicated to (1) reinforcing the business support operators’ capacities in matching the specific needs of start-ups and (2) the development of a path to fully exploit business projects in the energy field.
To this effect, Fondazzjoni Temi Zammit, the Maltese partner in the ENERGEIA project, is organising a conference to present the results of its energy mapping, together with those of the other partners, and conduct workshops to further discuss the challenges that are faced by businesses within the renewable energy sector.
The conference will be held on 5 March at the Corinthia Marina Hotel from 9am. Participation is free of charge but prior registration is required by sending an email to [email protected].