Within the framework of the Green Plan until 2030, the European Union is planning investments for the Balkan countries for the transition from coal to renewable sources or gas, which will be subsidized. The European Investment Bank has already identified favorable funds for green energy in the region. Serbia is expected to prepare projects as soon as possible because, they say, there are not enough of them for such investments.
The European Investment Bank is the first international institution that has brought a great energy turnaround, they stop investing in the production of energy from coal, oil and gas. In the next decade, they have made as much as a billion euros available to the world for green energy projects.
“To stop investing in fossil fuels by 2021 and to give strong support to safe, renewable and sustainable energy sources for which we will cover up to 75 percent of the project value,” said Dubravka Negre, director of the European Investment Bank for the Western Balkans.
Their focus is on investments in the Balkan countries, where coal is still the main source of electricity. Serbia, as well as the surrounding countries, has committed itself to gradually closing outdated thermoblocks. And Brussels is already threatening the big polluters with the introduction of penalties for harmful gas emissions, which they are already paying in the members of the Union.
“This means that all electricity that will be exported from Serbia and made in these dirty technologies will be burdened with the export tax, and therefore more expensive and less competitive,” points out Velimir Gavrilovic, director of the company “Energia Gas and Power”.
Experts believe that Serbia will provide a given quota of 27% of energy from renewable sources. We already have almost 500 megawatts of energy from the wind, and energy from the sun with a huge potential, is a chance to use European funds.
“It will be 27 percent safe because you already have requests for 1,000 new megawatts in EMS,” states Velimir Gavrilovic.
Capacity building for the production and storage of wind and solar energy requires the support of both the private and public sectors. It is striving for commercial projects because green energy is becoming more profitable and without incentives.
“Due to the fall in the price of solar equipment at this time, all projects can pay off in an average of six years if you spend energy for your own needs,” said Zoran Bojovic, director of Noleko and Unipromet.
The profession agrees – to provide energy that protects the planet. And they see the roadmap in the words of former American President Roosevelt, who said that people behave well if they treat their natural resources as property, which they must hand over to the next generations with improved and not damaged value.
“If Theodore Roosevelt could have established and said that more than 100 years ago, then we have an obligation to continue that journey,” Dubravka Negre emphasizes, RTS reports.
