OREANDA-NEWS. May 23, 2011. The participants at the Latvia’s National Energy Interests conference made a resolution, urging to define balanced development of the sector in the new Latvia’s National Energy Strategy. The conference was organised by Latvenergo AS in cooperation with the World Energy Council’s Latvian National Committee, with energy sector experts, policy makers, scientists and academics in the field participating.

The conference participants discussed the current situation in power industry, development paths for the sector and the resources necessary for ensuring balanced handling of energy. The conference was organised as a sequence of four panel discussions on the following topics: Latvia’s place on the European energy map, Latvia’s provision with energy sources and capacities; the state of the infrastructure, consumption, and future forecasts, power supply safety; the role of renewable energy sources in the country’s power supply, as well as reliability of state power supply and the market in Latvia and the Baltics; development visions for energy sectors.

The conference participants all agreed that Latvia is among the cleanest and greenest countries in the world, with the lowest per capita emissions in the entire European Union. It should continue to work on consolidating its leading position among the EU states, although this should not be done at any cost, instead focusing on rational considerations of the interests of the state and the general public. Experts believe that the energy strategy being developed should evaluate in a balanced way the broadened opportunities for utilising local resources in the areas of transport, electricity and especially in heating, where these resources would yield the greatest gain. Increasing costs due to the use of renewable energy sources must not make Latvia’s economy and products unable to compete on the global market.

The participants at the event acknowledged that the use of new nuclear technologies is a competitive solution for satisfying future electricity demand, at the same time reducing emissions. Adopting nuclear energy will shape an advanced, innovative industry sector in the country, capable of solving more than just electricity issues (electricity and hydrogen in transport and heat supply). Consequently, the first step should be educating society about the advantages of nuclear energy and the safety of the latest technologies. Knowledge of exact sciences should be promoted.

Power industry experts stress that the creation of new economically justified international power connections and an infrastructure for liquefied natural gas, as well as development of new economically justified base capacities will spurn market growth and provide a way to improve power generation in Latvia, while improving self-sufficiency, power supply reliability and the export/import balance. This will stimulate gross domestic product growth considerably.

Conference participants suggested that their joint resolution should be used in the development of Latvia’s energy policy documents, observing the interests of the public and the economy.