Lena Bratic, E3 International’s (E3I’s) Regional Manager for the Western Balkans, was invited to participate as a panelist in the second annual conference of the Partnership for Transatlantic Energy Cooperation (P-TEC), as an expert on energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy (RE) project financing and market assessment of RE and EE technologies. The meeting took place in Vilnius, Lithuania on October 7, 2019. P-TEC invited representatives from 24 countries in addition to Lena, including Rick Perry, the US Secretary of Energy and Founder of P-TEC, Ditte Juul Jørgensen, Director-General of the Directorate for Energy of the European Commission, ministers of Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Albania, Romania, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Poland, vice-ministers of Moldova and Hungary, and representatives of the US think-tank Atlantic Council. The event focused on four key topics: energy infrastructure issues, security of energy supply, nuclear energy, and the development of renewable energy sources.
The P-TEC was initiated by United States Department of Energy as part of the Three Seas Initiative. P-TEC promotes interconnectivity, security, and collaboration between the Central European energy sector and the United States and is expected to return dividends for investments in the short and long term. Shared energy infrastructure like power grids, pipelines, and transportation will create greater unity, partnership, and will objectively return financial, environmental, and job growth profits. . The premise of P-TEC is simple: By strengthening their own energy security…countries across this Continent…can bolster their national security…and further their economic security. And two ways of strengthening their energy security are by increasing their energy diversity and by increasing their energy efficiency.
As a leader in the Western Balkan region on energy efficiency and renewable energy project development, E3I is expected to have a significant role in shaping P-TEC activities in the areas of EE and RE.