Serbia’s revised incentives for using renewable energy sources will help add 1,092 megawatts of available power by 2020, an Energy Ministry official said.
The increase by 11.6 percent of Serbia’s current capacity is what the Balkan nation needs by the end of the decade to improve its energy mix under a European Union-backed regional agreement, Deputy Energy Minister Dejan Trifunovic said at a conference in Belgrade today. About 500 new megawatts is expected from wind farms, 200 megawatts from large hydro plants, 200 megawatts from small hydro facilities, 100 megawatts fueled by biomass and the rest from solar and geothermal sources.
“Our estimate is that investments in new capacity, mostly from the private sector, will amount to some 2 billion euros ($2.7 billion)” by 2020, Trifunovic said.
New feed-in tariffs, incentives to purchase electricity from renewables at higher rates, took effect in Serbia this week. Hydro plants of up to 30 megawatts are now eligible for the support, up from 10 megawatts, with the subsidized rate up by about a third to between 7.4 euro cents and 13.7 euro cents per kilowatt hour, depending on size of plant.
The tariff for wind farms was reduced to 9.2 euro cents from 9.5 euro cents per kilowatt hour, while the rate for solar parks bigger than 0.5 megawatts is at 16.25 euro cents, reduced by almost a third on falling cost of equipment. The tariffs, adjustable for inflation, are guaranteed over 12 years and producers won’t bear the cost of grid-balancing.
Source Bloomberg
