On Tuesday, 16 March 2021, the Norwegian Embassy in Sarajevo and NBBA (Norway – BiH Business Association) held the first in the series of online seminars on energy.
The seminar attracted a large number of participants from Norway and institutions from BiH (Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH, Ministries of Energy from the Federation of BiH and Republika Srpska), chambers of commerce, regulatory agencies, FIPA, Elektroprivredas and companies active in energy sector.
After the introductory remarks by Ambassador Olav Reinertsen and Jan Morritz Olsson, NBBA Chairman, the first presentation was held by the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate. Mr. Torodd Jensen talked about climate change, solar and wind power and hydropower in Norway, as well as challenges and options for the future. He gave an example of the water construction at the Mandal River in Norway, emphasizing the importance of compliance to ecological/environmental requirements.
Tron Engebrethsen, Senior Vice President from Norwegian Statkraft AS held a presentation carrying the title of the seminar – “Green Hydropower – the Norwegian Way”. Statkraft has concrete plans to become the largest green energy company in Europe by 2025. The company has a strict focus on safety, compliance and environment. Statkraft has currently a huge hydropower operation in Albania (Devoll) where they made their first investment in 2007. As for the other Western Balkan countries, he said that the green shift would require new renewable energy sources , although these are still considered countries with risk for long term investments.
Ms. Ingrid Welde, Business Developer at Tinfos AS, talked about the company’s experiences with hydropower plants in the Western Balkan, as they are already present in North Macedonia and Montenegro. They are actively searching for new business opportunities in Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In constructing small and medium hydropower plants, the company strictly adheres to the rules of ecology, reducing the risks for negative impact for nature and the environment.
In his conclusion, Ambassador Reinertsen emphasized that this seminar brought together several resource persons from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Norway. He also announced that this event will be followed by other seminars and events organized by the Norwegian Embassy and NBBA in the time to come. Finally, Ambassador expressed hope that these events would lead to concrete commercial cooperation and investments.