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Sustainable Energy Successees

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Renewable Energy
RENEWABLE ENERGY

 

Solar Energy Projects

While the use of solar energy for heating and hot water is much less used in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) than in Western Europe, these examples show that the technology is known and has been used in many projects throughout CEE. The industry exists and has arisen in many countries without governmental support and in spite of subsidies for traditional energy sources, as is the case in Hungary. In several CEE countries, sufficient resources exist for large-scale development of solar energy in the coming years, as has occurred in Western European countries, e.g., in Austria. A different kind of large-scale development of solar energy has taken place throughout CEE, however, with simple systems being installed for summer use in country houses, and in week-end and summer houses. These simple systems are hard to quantify in terms of numbers or performance, but have gained popularity in, e.g., Romania (as described below), Hungary, Ukraine, and Southern Russia. A similar development has occurred in CEE in which open balconies are converted to passive-solar glass-enclosed extensions. This has arisen without any central planning, professional intervention, or quality control; it has been done by inhabitants of the many high-raise apartment houses. It is even harder to quantify the results of these alterations, as energy consumption will vary with usage of the balconies. In some cases heat consumption may even increase.

CASE STUDIES