Energy effi­ciency, renew­able energy, and smart sys­tems inte­gra­tion pro­vides a rapid path away from local and glob­ally pol­lut­ing energy sys­tems.  This gen­eral assess­ment is par­tic­u­larly true for impov­er­ished areas or those impacted by con­flict.  This is the case because the mix­ture of energy effi­ciency and renew­able energy can gen­er­ally be deployed far more rapidly and in more dis­trib­uted a fash­ion than tra­di­tional, cen­tral­ized, energy systems.

Kosovo is par­tic­u­larly in need, and par­tic­u­larly amenable to this sort of “rapid and green” devel­op­ment plan.  This project, started to iden­tify and quan­tify oppor­tu­ni­ties to choose a clean path instead of an ongo­ing fix­a­tion on coal, has now spread to exam­ine both national and regional oppor­tu­ni­ties in South­east Europe.