Lithuania’s Minister of Energy, Dainius Kreivys and US Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm signed a historic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on enhanced cooperation to help achieve Lithuania’s goals of energy security and the transition to a climate-neutral energy sector.
The agreement aims to better prepare Lithuania’s energy sector to meet climate change-related threats. Specifically, the MoU outlines key areas of cooperation related to strengthening Lithuania’s energy sector in the field of cyber security, as well as Lithuania’s goal of transitioning to a 100 per cent renewable energy sector by 2050.
“The US Department of Energy has maintained a strong and consistent collaboration with Lithuania and this MoU further solidifies a committed cooperation to working with our European allies at this critically important moment in history”, said Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “The world-class experts at DOE’s National Labs have successfully developed 100 per cent clean energy plans and we are excited to share this expertise with Lithuania to build a global model of energy sector transformation.”
Following the announcement in June of closer cooperation between the two sides in developing a model for Lithuania’s energy transition, the Ministry of Energy and other organisations will work with the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory to develop a plan to modernise the country’s electricity system infrastructure modelled after the Los Angeles 100 per cent Renewable Energy Study (LA100). Lithuania will be the first country in the world to implement this model in order to achieve a transition of its energy sector to 100 per cent renewable energy by 2050. The LT-100 study will help to understand and plan for issues related to feasibility, reliability, public health, and equitable local economic development, including job opportunities and local hiring programs in renewable energy.
“This agreement, signed together with Secretary Granholm, is not the beginning of energy cooperation between Lithuania and the United States, but the outcome consistent and intensive cooperation lasting for several years,” said Energy Minister Kreivys. “It represents a shared commitment by both countries to continue to work closely together to achieve the same energy policy goals, one of the most important of which is the historic and inevitable transformation of our energy sectors.”
“Lithuania has ambitious goals for the next three decades to become not only a fully energy-independent and self-sufficient country generating energy for its own needs from renewable sources but also a net exporting country in the region,” he added. “Over the next few decades, the energy sector will become an even more complex organism that will require special protection and resilience to external factors. Therefore, we have agreed to work together to strengthen the resilience of the energy sector to cyber threats and climate change factors.”
