Serbia misses chance to attract EUR 2 billion investment in "green electricity" - We present you National Renewable Energy Action Plan

It is already well known that Serbia has a strong potential for the exploitation of renewable energy sources, and the government`s concrete actions aimed at using these resources have recently been unveiled to the public at a conference in the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, when it was said that our country had lost about EUR 2 billion worth of investments in the previous three years due to being inactive when it came to the use of aforementioned potential.

According to the National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP), renewable energy is to account for 27 percent of the total final energy consumption in Serbia by 2020. The NREAP also specifies how many megawatts of electricity are to be generated from wind, biomass, water and other renewable sources.

The NREAP reads that renewables should amount to 2,563.6 ktoe in 2020, meaning that it is necessary to boost the quantity of renewable energy sources by 621.0 ktoe in the period 2009-2020. Considering the available potential of renewable energy sources and untapped opportunities, Serbia can achieve the goal set for 2020 using domestic resources, except in regard to the obligatory share of biofuels of 10 percent in the car fuel mix. Considering currently available plants for producing biofuels from second generation biomass, which meet the requirements regarding the emission of GHG gases, and given that there is no legislation and accompanying infrastructure necessary for its application in the field of biofuels, Serbia will have to make plans for the import of biofuels in 2018.

Energy Minister Zorana Mihajlovic said at the conference in the SCC that the NREAP complemented the regulatory framework for renewable energy sources.

Among the most important changes in the regulatory framework are amendments to the part of the Energy Law regulating the issue of energy permits and the imposition of new obligations on investors.

In addition, four regulations on feed-in tariffs in the use of renewable energy sources were adopted.

Investors were invited last week to submit a letter of interest for 316 locations in 17 municipalities in Serbia designated for the construction of small hydroelectric power stations, and that public invitation will remain open until April 5th.

The conference also saw the presentation of guides for investors - Power Plant Construction and Electricity Generation from Biomass in the Republic of Serbia, Power Plant Construction and Electricity Generation in Small Hydroelectric Power Stations in Serbia, Power Plant Construction and Electricity Generation in Wind Generators in Serbia, Power Plant Construction and Electricity and Heat Generation from Hydrogeothermal Sources in Serbia, Power Plant Construction and Electricity Generation in Solar Plants in Serbia, and Solar System Construction in Serbia.

Dejan Trifunovic, assistant to the energy minister, said that among the mandatory indicators for monitoring the implementation of the National Renewable Energy Action Plan were the share of renewable sources in the gross final energy consumption, the share of renewables in energy consumption in the heating and cooling sector, the share of renewable energy sources in energy consumption in the electricity sector and in the energy consumption in the transportation sector, as well as the total annual energy consumption in the heating and cooling, electricity and transportation sectors. He also pointed to the untapped, biggest resource of renewables in Serbia - biomass, whose potential is estimated at about 3.3 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe) per year.

Potential

Biomass potential amounts to approximately 3.3 Mtoe a year, water potential is at 1.7 Mtoe (0.8 Mtoe per year - untapped potential, 0.9 Mtoe per year - tapped potential), geothermal energy potential is 0.2 Mtoe a year, wind energy potential stands at 0.2 Mtoe per year, while solar energy potential amounts to 0.6 Mtoe a year.

Exclusively for eKapija readers, we present the National Renewable Energy Action Plan in full as well as guides for investors.