New drivers of sustainable development in developing countries SILVIA CESARI
Author: PhD researcher Silvia Cesari
Affiliation: Ferrara University
Background
In - and due to - the current economic and social condition, new innovation processes are happening in developing countries, ‘proving that scarcity of means can stimulate technical inventiveness’. (Galiano, 2014). This is what occurs when cities and the existing demanding conditions are considered strategic and potential resources for their occupants. Albania, one of the fastest-growing countries in Europe before the global financial crisis, is making every effort to attain a competitive market economy and reach EU membership. Despite demonstrating significant economic growth in the last decade, the country’s development is constrained by an insecure power supply and obsolete energy infrastructure. One of the main challenges in ensuring a reliable and sustainable power sector is represented by electricity, whose production is completely dependent on hydropower generation.
References
Albanian Government, UNECE, IFC, UNDP, (2014) Energy efficient housing for sustainable development, [Online], Available:https://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/hlm/prgm/hmm/energy_efficiency/Tirana_2014/presentations/6_Vesa_Rutanen_UNDP.pdf
Battista, G. et al. (2015) ‘Energy Performance and Thermal Comfort of a High Efficiency House: RhOME for denCity, Winner of Solar Decathlon Europe 2014’, Sustainability [Journal], vol. 7, no. 7, pp. 9681–9695, Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su7079681 [12 Feb 2016].
Bidaj, F. et al. (2015) ‘Evaluation of the heating share of household electricity consumption using statistical analysis: a case study of Tirana, Albania’, International Journal of Sustainable Energy Planning and Management, vol.5, pp.3-14.
