Albania

In accordance with Albania’s National Energy Strategy adopted in 2004, GEF-UNDP is supporting the Government of Albania to accelerate the market development of solar water heating (SWH) as one of the measures to reduce the growing electricity consumption and disparity between demand and the domestic power generation capacity, while simultaneously addressing the commitments of the Government of Albania under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to formulate programs for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The project preparatory phase (PDF B) currently under implementation is expected to lead to the finalization of the full size project document, which is planned to be submitted to the GEF as part of the Global Solar Water Heating Market Transformation and Strengthening Initiative. The full size project is sought to be financed partly by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through UNDP, together with cost sharing from the Government of Albania as well as from other donors and private sector. This country program of Albania aims at accelerating the market development of solar water heating in Albania with an objective to facilitate the installation of 75,000 m2 of new installed collector area over the duration of the project, an annual sale of 20,000 m2 reached by the end of the project and with expected continuing growth to reach the set target of 540,000 m2 of total installed SWH capacity by 2020. This has been estimated to correspond to over 300 MW of avoided, new fossil fuel power capacity by using solar electricity for water heating, and estimated cumulative GHG reduction potential of over 1 million tons of CO2 by the end 2020.

UNDP-GEF National Communication Support Unit (NCSU); Government (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Energy; National Agency of Energy; Ministry of Environment, Forests and Water Administration; Ministry of Finance); Private sector; Local communities; Energy and environmental NGOs.

National Execution through a share of responsibilities between Climate Change Umbrella Program under the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Water Administration and National Agency of Energy under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Energy.

Mirela Kamberi
National Projects Coordinator
Tel/Fax: (+355) 4 271941
Mobile: (+355) 682072314
E-mail: mkamberi@icc-al.org / mirela.kamberi@undp.org