FORBES
European flag outside the Commission (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The European Commission put its first operational weight behind funding solar energy efforts across the Southern Mediterranean this month with the announcement that they would now offer up funding for qualifying projects from Tangiers to the West Bank. Betting on the potential for solar projects to help economic growth and ease the region off the volatility of hydrocarbons, the plan would target the funding of the “generation of renewable energy, energy efficiency as well as grid connection projects”, providing up to 100 percent of technical assistance costs for qualifying efforts in Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, and West Bank & Gaza.
While the stated goal of helping North African states beef up their green potential for the sake of jobs, home-grown technology and energy independence that does not rely too heavily on fragile pipelines (13 explosions in the Sinai in the last year) or global price fluctuations, the EC plan also fits nicely into a grander scheme for ensuring green resources for Euro consumers sooner rather than later.
This is not to say that the funding will come at much of a cost to like-minded projects in sun-rich Greece, Italy or Spain (EC structural funds will still help that), but putting some financial backing behind the Southern Mediterranean should help bolster confidence in the region’s potential and ability to weather the political storms of the last year. With the stated goal of creating a “robust pipeline” of solar projects across the Mediterranean, the financing effort appears to target just the sort of infrastructure deficits that have kept potential backers at bay.
For those firms or initiatives out to lay some groundwork to attract further interest and investment in the region, having the EC beefing up efforts in the region might just give them the momentum they’ve been looking for.
The European Commission put its first operational weight behind funding solar energy efforts across the Southern Mediterranean this month with the announcement that they would now offer up funding for qualifying projects from Tangiers to the West Bank. Betting on the potential for solar projects to help economic growth and ease the region off the volatility of hydrocarbons, the plan would target the funding of the “generation of renewable energy, energy efficiency as well as grid connection projects”, providing up to 100 percent of technical assistance costs for qualifying efforts in Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, and West Bank & Gaza.
While the stated goal of helping North African states beef up their green potential for the sake of jobs, home-grown technology and energy independence that does not rely too heavily on fragile pipelines (13 explosions in the Sinai in the last year) or global price fluctuations, the EC plan also fits nicely into a grander scheme for ensuring green resources for Euro consumers sooner rather than later.
This is not to say that the funding will come at much of a cost to like-minded projects in sun-rich Greece, Italy or Spain (EC structural funds will still help that), but putting some financial backing behind the Southern Mediterranean should help bolster confidence in the region’s potential and ability to weather the political storms of the last year. With the stated goal of creating a “robust pipeline” of solar projects across the Mediterranean, the financing effort appears to target just the sort of infrastructure deficits that have kept potential backers at bay.
For those firms or initiatives out to lay some groundwork to attract further interest and investment in the region, having the EC beefing up efforts in the region might just give them the momentum they’ve been looking for.
Christopher Coats, Contributor
I write about energy and policy issues facing the Mediterranean region
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