UN Division for Sustainable Development

Case Study Detail Record

Organization type:	Government

Name of Ministry/Agency:	German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development

Country:	Germany

Name of Focal Point:	Division 313

Initiative Title:	Technical Expertise for Renewable Energy Application (TERNA) - Cross-regional

Internet links:	http://www.gtz.de/wind

Scope:	Global

Status:	Ongoing

Timeframe:	Start: May 1997 End: December 2007

Lead Institution:	German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development

Stakeholders/Partners:	The TERNA programme is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technischen Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH. It is cooperating with UNEP’s programme “Solar and Wind Energy Ressource Assessment (SWERA)”, national governments and utilities, wind eneregy associations as well as a German environmental NGO (Deutscher Naturschutzring).

Relevent issues:	- Capacity-building in energy policy formulation and management - Energy sector reforms - Energy sector reforms (e.g. Energy laws, legal and regulatory initiatives) - Renewable energy including hydro power

Objectives/Challenges:

The challenge tackled by the TERNA Wind Energy Programme is the lack of knowledge of decision makers and experts in private and public institutions with respect to grid-connected wind energy. The main objectives of TERNA comprise:
1) Closing the knowledge gap in developing countries. For that TERNA supports partner countries in the assessment and utilisation of their wind energy potential for generating grid-connected electricity
2) Initiation and preparation of economically feasible wind energy projects
3) Advising partner countries on the establishment and improvement of energy policy frameworks for renewable energies, especially wind energy.

Lessons Learned:

Since its start, TERNA has been active in more than 10 countries and has been successfully initaiting the exploitation of wind energy potentials. For example Colombia’s first wind farm, consisting of 15 wind turbines with a total rated output of 19.5 MW, entered service in 2003/2004 with support from TERNA. Within the programme, the water supply situation of indigenous people at the site of the wind farm was improved. It is envisaged that approx. 900,000 t caron dioxid emissions can be avoided over the life-time of the wind park.
In China TERNA acted in an advisory capacity in the shaping and formulation of a law promoting the use of renewable energy which came into force at the beginning of 2006.
In addition, wind measurements and feasibility studies have been conducted in more than ten countries.
Major lessons learned comprise the experiences that in some cases, long lead times even after TERNA activities have to be taken into account until concrete investments in wind energy parcs materialise (e.g., Bangladesh, Brazil, Namibia).

Summary:

GTZ's TERNA Wind Energy Programme aims at overcoming the lack of knowledge concerning the wind enery potential in developing countries and emerging markets. Major activities comprise energy policy advisory services for creating favourable framework conditions for renewable energies, especially wind energy. In addition, experts' and policy decisions makers' know-how shall be increased based on concrete wind park projects. TERNA is assisting in concrete wind measurements and feasibility studies for selected sites.
One of the major impact of the TERNA programme was the Colombian case study, in which the first wind park of Colombia was developed wiht support of TERNA. The 19.5 MW wind park is envisaged to have approx. 900,000 t of carbon dioxid savings over its life-time.