To create contact points for communities and individuals on islands, secretariats need to be opened. There’s a need for funds for human resources on the islands. A transition manager, who should implement projects and guidelines could be hired with sufficient funding. This is food for thought for the EC and national governments. There’s a need for funds to build human capacity to get the transition going. The lack of human resources is one of the main barriers for the implementation of projects and the energy transition.

Wrap up from Jan Cornillie: "To put the clean energy vision into action we need policy, technology and finance world working together in supporting communities and implementing the clean energy tran

Setting the agenda for clean energy transition on European islands

Moderation: Jan Cornillie - Project director, Clean energy for EU islands secretariat (3E)

● Paula Pinho - Director for Just Transition, Consumers, Energy Efficiency and Innovation, DG ENER, European Commission

● Markku Markkula - Vice-President of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), Chair of the Espoo City Board, President of Helsinki Region

● Giuseppe Sciacca - Executive Secretary of the CPMR Islands Commission

The secretariat has in its 2nd phase a strong emphasis on exploring legal and regulatory frameworks as well as developing a pipeline of bankable projects.

A total number of 35 valid applications from all over Europe have reached the secretariat. The majority of applications came from Greek followed by Italian islands. 20 applications were chosen to receive technical assistance as announced in the Guide for Applicants.

● Marina Montero Carrero – Technical lead, Clean energy for EU islands secretariat (3E)

● Andrea Martinez - Project Coordinator, NESOI (Sinloc)

Technology session: technologies for clean energy transition on the islands.

Moderation: João Peças Lopes - Professor at the Faculty of Engineering of Porto University, Director/Member of the board at INESC TEC

● Carlos Moreira - Senior Researcher / Centre for Power and Energy Systems, INESC TEC & FEUP - Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto (click here for the slides)

● Eckard Quitmann - Head of Grid Integration dept., Enercon (click here for the slides)

Opening speech by Kadri Simson - European Commissioner for Energy, European Commission at the Clean energy for EU islands forum 2021.

Tonino Picula, Chair of the SEArica intergroup, European Parliament In his keynote speech Tonino Picula highlighted the importance of the just transition agenda including the needs for jobs, access for cheap renewable energy as well as social cohesion.

Islands that are non-interconnected to the mainland (or to larger grids on other islands) face specific challenges for their decarbonisation that often limit the development of clean energy projects.

In this webinar, we explored the fundamentals of marine technologies and provide an overview of available technologies and their readiness level. The advantages, disadvantages and suitability depending on the island's characteristics will be discussed, and examples of existing projects and their outcome presented.