Slovakia’s priorities for its energy transition have so far been based on its goals of energy independence from Russia, and decreasing its emissions. But as a part of the EU, it should also be promoting the transition to renewable energy. How could this go forward? Veronika Jurcova explains. Like other post-Soviet countries, Slovakia has been highly dependent on energy imports from Russia. This dependency was determined by the east-west orientation of its oil and gas infrastructure. After two gas crises with Russia, however, several measures, such as reverse flow of gas and the construction of more north-south interconnectors have been implemented to overcome this energy security challenge. Slovakia’s energy dependence on Russia is thus gradually decreasing. The energy mix is beginning to diversify, with balanced representation of coal, nuclear, natural gas and a slowly rising share of renewable sources energy sources. The country’s liberalization of the national gas and electricity markets has been rather slow, mostly because of insufficient political incentives. In the gas sector, the main debate has largely focused on security issues and the traditional … Continue reading The Slovak energy transition – decarbonisation and energy security