The European Union's energy politic aim is to increase the use of the renewable energy sources from the current (average) 5.3 percent to 12 percent and to increase the electric energy usage produced by renewable energy sources to 22.1 percent till 2010.
In Hungary the use of the renewable energy sources within the total energy use is only 3.6 percent which is significantly below the economically exploitable potential, and is very low compared to the international rates too.
The market offers several products and technology for those who are interested in utilizing the renewable energy sources (solar energy, wind energy, geothermic energy, water energy, etc.), but the lot of information on the abundant supply may cause difficult decision making in several cases.
Another difficulty of the renewable energy sources' spread is that the potential buyers know only little on the application possibilities, the economic-social benefits and possible disadvantages of the different technologies, the connecting environment protection and social effects.
Most of the entities producing and distributing renewable energy technologies are small and medium sized enterprises (SME). These enterprises are in contest with each other on the different professional fields, but the renewable energy market's current development level highly requires the co-operation of the involved market players.
Recognizing the readiness for the co-operation the
Renewable Energy Consortium
has been established for achieving the set aims and for the widest possible spreading of the renewable energy.
The project for promoting the creation of the Renewable Energy Consortium is supported by the Baross Gábor Innovation Programme of the National Office for Research and Technology.
The general aim of the project
is to diminish the greenhouse gas emissions by increasing the renewable energy use, and by this means to contribute the establishment of the conditions of the sustainable development and the healthful human environment. In the long term the renewable energy use decreases the country's import energy dependency, and contributes the creation of new workplaces.
The direct aim of the project
is to provide co-operation possibility for the SMEs dealing with the renewable energy activities which helps the information spreading, the strengthen of their professional and economic backgrounds, improves their innovation capabilities and their products' market access by applying efficient tools. Further direct aim is to provide wide-scale professional information for those who are interested in the use of the renewable energy sources, and by using the elaborated business offers they could prepare investments.
Further information about the project is available on the web site of the project co-ordinator Central Hungarian Innovation Centre: www.chic.hu