interviews
Photo: Energy Impact CenterBret Kugelmass, Energy Impact Center: If the EU Wants to Fight Climate Change, There Will Have to Be a Future for Nuclear
January 13, 2020 | Alenka Lena KlopčičElectricity | Energy policy | CO2 emissions
“How can anything solve the climate problem if everything has a carbon footprint? Everything has a carbon footprint! We even need fossil fuels to make batteries, wind turbines etc.,” said Bret Kugelmass at the start of his speech at the American Climate Leadership Summit 2019, adding that this paradox troubled him so much that he moved from Silicon Valley to Washington DC, where he started the...
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Photo: Samo TrebižanNina Bračko Colja, Energia gas and power: Slovenia Slow to Cut Carbon Footprint
January 6, 2020 | Alenka Lena Klopčič, Tanja SrnovršnikElectricity | RES and EE | CO2 emissions | New technologies | Economy | Startup
Italy’s Europe Energy, which has a subsidiary in Slovenia, wants to facilitate the industry’s transition to a low-carbon society. To this end, the company is launching a zero-carbon electricity product on the Slovenian market, along with a platform for energy efficiency investments which will initially focus on households, explained the company’s Director of Market Development, Nina Bračko...
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Photo: Dragan MijatovićIvan Bulatović, SEE CAO: Our Focus in Next 3 Years Will Be Inclusion of New TSOs
December 30, 2019 | Tanja SrnovršnikElectricity | Energy policy
The South East European Coordinated Auction Office (SEE CAO), which recently celebrated its fifth anniversary, is now servicing electricity TSOs on seven borders with more than 120 registered traders. The latest to be included in the SEE CAO’s portfolio is the Italy-Montenegro border, while within the next three years the SEE CAO will be focused on the inclusion of new TSOs, said Ivan...
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Photo: EIT DigitalFabio Pianesi, EIT Digital: There is Great Potential in the Balkan Region
December 23, 2019 | Energetika.NETNew technologies | Economy | Startup
“EIT Digital aims to be the ultimate driver of the digital transformation, not only in places where it operates brick-and-mortar representations. Under the ARISE Europe programme, EIT Digital has also teamed up with accelerators and universities in other parts of Europe to help local innovation communities grow and benefit from the EIT Digital network,” states EIT Digital’s webpage. How...
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Photo: Alenka Lena Klopčič“Šoštanj As an Energy Site Will Survive in the Long Term”
December 16, 2019 | Alenka Lena KlopčičElectricity | Coal | Energy policy | CO2 emissions
The CEO of the Slovenian Šoštanj thermal power plant (TEŠ), Viktor Vračar, and its Managing Director, Mitja Tašler, are confident about the future of this energy site. For Energetika.NET, they spoke about the state of the company and its future plans. The interview was conducted after a press briefing on the preparations for a project involving co-incineration of non-hazardous wastes in the...
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Photo: Aljoša VidetičAleš Nastran, Amibit: Smart City Solutions Are Still in Their Infancy
December 9, 2019 | Valerija HozjanNew technologies | Startup
The journey of the Slovenian start-up Amibit began with the introduction of the Amihub modular controller for optimising electricity consumption, which now has a patent pending and which won the Gold Innovation Award from the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. This year, the company turned its focus to finding innovative energy efficiency solutions, while also becoming an increasingly...
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Photo: Peter MarinšekMarko Mavec, Velenje Coal Mine: Our Revenue Won’t Come from Coal Sales in Future
December 2, 2019 | Alenka Lena KlopčičElectricity | Coal | Energy policy
When Marko Mavec took over as General Manager of Slovenia’s Velenje Coal Mine at the end of October 2019, he entered a company that had only managed to realise the production plan and generate a profit once in the last few years. However, he knew what he was getting himself into, as he had already been employed there between 1989 and 2004, most recently as the Head of Technical Services, whereas...
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Photo: MEPSOEva Shukleva, MEPSO: North Macedonia to Get Organised Power Market in 13 Months’ Time
November 25, 2019 | Tanja SrnovršnikElectricity | RES and EE | Energy policy
The Macedonian electricity transmission system operator (TSO), MEPSO, is in an intensive investment cycle, as part of which the TSO is planning to invest about EUR 102 million by 2022. One of the key projects is an interconnection with Albania. Contracts for the construction of this power line are due to be signed at the start of 2020, and it is expected that the project will be completed within...
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Photo: Eko skladMojca Vendramin: Eco Fund Is a Vital Pillar of Slovenia's Energy Policy
November 18, 2019 | Alenka Lena KlopčičRES and EE | Energy policy | Economy | Ecology
Over the last ten years, Slovenia's Eco Fund has allocated EUR 258 million in grants, co-financing nearly 110,000 energy efficiency investments, and EUR 276 million in loans to finance more than 10,000 environmental investments, said its director Mojca Vendramin at a recent entrepreneurial event in Lukovica, Slovenia. Last year alone, with grants totalling nearly EUR 60 million, Eco Fund...
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Photo: Anže Krže, MediaspeedMeik Wiking, Happiness Research Institute: Happiness at Work Can Lead to Higher GDP for Nations
November 11, 2019 | Alenka Lena KlopčičEconomy
Yes, happiness at work can lead to higher GDP for nations, agrees Meik Wiking, the CEO of the Happiness Research Institute and a New York Times bestselling author of books about happiness, adding that “the topic of happiness at work and higher GDP is also an ethical question, wherein should we being looking at happiness for the sake of happiness or happiness for productivity to increase GDP?”....
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