MINISTRY OF ECONOMY
AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
OF GEORGIA

Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development made a speech at the Renewable Energy Investment Conference, which was organized by the USAID Energy Future Assurance Program.

Representatives of the public and private energy sector took part in the event.  Vice Prime Minister Levan Davitashvili and the Mission Director for USAID/Caucasus, John Pennell opened the conference with welcoming speeches.

Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, in his speech, reviewed the international trends in the field of renewable energy and talked about the investment potential of Georgia and the need to use it correctly.

“Today’s conference is also dedicated to this issue - what investment potential and opportunities we have in renewable energy sources and what are the ways and forms of their utilization. Georgia has the ability to generate not only from such sources as hydroelectric power, wind, solar, biomass and other sources, but also various alternative, innovative energy sources. In addition, we have a great potential for Georgia to become a so-called energy accumulation center, where hydropower from different countries will gather, and we can be a trading platform. All this, of course, requires the development of appropriate infrastructure and implementation of systems, which the state is actively working on,” – Davitashvili stated.

Vice Prime Minister emphasized that the Georgian government is also working intensively on energy policy and reforms that will ultimately create the basis of the country’s sustainable energy system. Davitashvili thanked all the supporting organizations and states that support Georgia in establishing of this policy. As the Minister of Economy stated, Georgia is ready to be an investor, a partner with international and local investors in order to develop large-scale energy projects in the country and show clear support of the state to this sector.

In the context of reforming the energy sector and the important role of the state in this regard, Levan Davitashvili also spoke about the opening of the electricity market in Georgia from 1st July, which means trade in the open market under competitive conditions. In addition, a new scheme for supporting renewable energies has been developed: capacity auction and price difference agreement. According to the Minister, the first such auction has already been successfully completed and 27 winning projects for the construction of hydro, wind and solar power plants have been identified.

“The results of the auction showed us that the interest of investors is quite high, and the support scheme offered by us is acceptable and interesting for them. Another incentive for the development of green energy will be the Black Sea submarine cable project, which has high international support and will connect our region to European markets,” – Levan Davitashvili noted.