In Hungary, eco policies are orientated in compliance with EU regulations, which not only set the standards for Hungary’s energy framwork, but also appear to be one of the major driving forces of it. To address sustainable energy issues in a more effective way, the national Energy Centre (non-profit governmental organisation) was formed in 2000, and has since then taken responsibility for the improvement of energy efficiency and renewable energy utilization.
Over the past couple of decades, Hungary has come a long way in improving environmental conditions, with vast improvement in ambient air quality, and 2010 targets for electricity generation from renewables were met well ahead of the dealine. Resultantly, in relation to other CEE countries, Hungary’s environmentally critical areas are a lot less concentrated, and only a few hot spots can be named.
The renewable energy sector in Hungary is currently still underdeveloped with minimal solar energy projects and only a handful of wind power installations, nonetheless, the energy intensity of the economy has been greatly reduced this century, as the share of renewables in total primary energy supply increased considerably with the introduction of the feed-in tariff in 2001. Fortunately, with decent conditions for solar energy generation, and grid access gaurantee for wind projects, many small scale wind energy uses are under development,and the future of wind and solar power in Hungary looks promising.
Hungary also supports investment incentives for renewable energy sources, while offering low interest loans for such projects. Sadly, these are mostly unatainable to privat homeowners due the overall installation costs, and foreign investment in large-scale projects only trickles in every once in a while. Overall, with no truly luring renewable energy conditions for investors, and flippant politicians who keep national projects on the level of discourse due to „prioritization”, Hungary still remains just a tag-along in the European eco movement.
