In it together: the road to a cleaner, cheaper CEE power system

The report argues that Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries can significantly lower wholesale power prices and enhance energy security by accelerating the deployment of wind and solar energy. By targeting 200 GW of capacity by 2030, the region could reach a 63% share of renewables in electricity generation. The analysis emphasizes that cross-country collaboration is essential to unlock over 100 GW of offshore wind potential and that aligning national strategies with EU policy could unlock approximately €137 billion in public funding.

• Accelerating wind and solar deployment in the CEE region could reduce average wholesale electricity prices by 29% by 2030 compared to current policy trajectories, dropping prices to an average of 41 €/MWh from 57 €/MWh in the baseline scenario.
• The CEE region has the potential to deploy 196 GW of wind and solar capacity by 2030, consisting of 130 GW of solar, 45 GW of onshore wind, and 20 GW of offshore wind. This would increase the share of renewables in electricity generation to 63% by 2030, up from 25% in 2022.
• Regional collaboration is critical to accessing over 100 GW of offshore wind potential, as some high-demand countries like Czechia and Hungary lack sea access, while others like Estonia and Latvia could produce electricity far exceeding their own 2030 demand.
• Aligning national renewable energy targets with EU climate policy could provide the CEE region with at least €136 billion (or approximately €137 billion) in EU funding, sourced from the Recovery and Resilience Facility (€71.6 billion), the Just Transition Fund (€17 billion), and the Modernization Fund (at least €48 billion).
• Failure to accelerate the energy transition would leave the CEE region uncompetitive and increase import dependency, with the region potentially forced to import 34 TWh of electricity in 2030, a five-fold increase from 2022.
• Grid bottlenecks and a lack of planning are currently hindering renewables deployment; for example, 15 GW of projects were denied grid connection permits in Poland in 2021, and Hungary's MAVIR operator stopped accepting new connection requests for weather-dependent plants until May 2023.

APA

Czyżak, P., & Fox, H. (2023). In it together: the road to a cleaner, cheaper CEE power system. Ember. https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2023/05/In-it-together_-the-road-to-a-cleaner-cheaper-CEE-power-system-1.pdf

Chicago

Czyżak, Paweł, and Harriet Fox. In it together: the road to a cleaner, cheaper CEE power system. Ember, 2023. https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2023/05/In-it-together_-the-road-to-a-cleaner-cheaper-CEE-power-system-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Czyżak |first1=Paweł |last2=Fox |first2=Harriet |title=In it together: the road to a cleaner, cheaper CEE power system |publisher=Ember |date=15 May 2023 |url=https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2023/05/In-it-together_-the-road-to-a-cleaner-cheaper-CEE-power-system-1.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{czyak2023together, author = {Czyżak, Paweł and Fox, Harriet}, title = {{In it together: the road to a cleaner, cheaper CEE power system}}, institution = {Ember}, year = {2023}, month = may, url = {https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2023/05/In-it-together_-the-road-to-a-cleaner-cheaper-CEE-power-system-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }