As much as 70 percent of electricity in Serbia is obtained from coal. However, Serbia undertook to give up this raw material – and within a short period of time. How realistic is it and what is the alternative?
Thousands of tons of lignite or brown coal are extracted daily from open coal mines, and then burned in thermal power plants in Serbia. As much as 70 percent of electricity is produced from this raw material, and the remaining 30 percent mostly in hydroelectric power plants, while solar power plants and wind farms are only slightly represented, writes Deutsche Welle.
While other countries are taking measures faster to combat the effects of the greenhouse, Serbia is stuck in the use of coal, according to prof. Dr. Anđelka Mihajlov, Ambassador of the Climate Pact. “The EU has adopted the so-called green agreement to become climate neutral by 2050 – no greenhouse gas emissions, no coal by 2050. On the day of accession to the EU, we acquire obligations to act in this way. If we do not act, every day punishment,” says prof. Dr. Anđelka Mihajlov.
Deadlines of the European Union
The Green Deal is just one of many documents. Last year, Serbia adopted the NDC (Nationally Determined Contribution) for the period from 2021 to 2030.
According to that document, Serbia is ambitiously planning to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 13.2 percent compared to 2010. It informed the Secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change about this, which called on all OSCE countries, including Serbia, to by 2030, they will eliminate the use of coal. Some countries have until 2040 for this.
However, Serbia has not yet adopted numerous strategies, Professor Mihajlov explains, and she fears that the race over time is going too slowly.
Although the structural change towards low-carbon technologies in Serbia is only at the beginning, the Government of Serbia still has great ambitions, according to the competent Ministry of Energy and Mining.
The planning is just beginning
“The starting position of most countries in the region is significantly more difficult than in most EU member states, due to the high share of coal in the production of electricity, so the costs of decarbonization will be proportionally higher. This means that in Serbia and in other countries of the region, proportional support from international partners will be necessary , as well as investments in renewable energy sources. The EU has set aside 100 billion euros for this purpose,” the Ministry says and reminds that Serbia, along with Poland, is the most dependent country on coal in Europe and that when replacing this basic energy source with green energy, it must be takes care not to endanger the stability of the supply.
The Ministry also announced the adoption of a plan for priority investments in energy, which includes investments of around 15 billion euros in the coming years. The list includes key projects in all areas of the department, production capacities and transmission network, gas and oil. That document will specify a clear time plan which projects should be implemented until 2030 and which are part of long-term plans.
The energy potential of the sun
They admit, however, that Serbia does not use all its potential from renewable energy sources. For solar power plants alone, they say that the potential of Serbia, with 280 sunny days, is greater than that of Germany.
The transmission network Is one of the most necessary things for the production of electricity through solar power plants, according to Radisav Dimić, who has been dealing with solar energy in Serbia since 2010. With his solar panel installations, he has covered dozens of solar power plants and a large number of households. However, all that, says Radisav, is too little. And it would be very significant in the decarbonization of Serbia.
“It is not easy here, we have just started with solar energy. For larger plants, we first need stable routes, which will transmit that electricity from east to west, north and south, that should be stabilized, because power plants must have safe flow,” says the interviewee of Deutsche Welle.
The state to help and facilitate
“I believe that more work should be done on these energy sources and with households, that people should be offered the opportunity to obtain easier loans, that almost every other house can install solar systems. It is not easy in Serbia to allocate 50 percent of the price that citizens need to give, it should be made a little easier for them”, believes Radisav and adds “we are on the right path”.
He emphasizes the importance of solar energy for factories that could cover their large roof surfaces with panels and depend only on their own electricity. It also adds schools and institutional buildings that have larger areas for panels. As he says, there is no such thing now.
In addition to subsidy incentives, paperwork is also part of the problem for those who want to use electricity from solar panels and contribute to the use of green energy. The paperwork is very demanding and takes a long time, and an additional problem is that the excess electricity produced by the owner of the solar panel is written off once a year, the electricity cannot be sold to Elektroprivreda, but can be sold on the European stock exchange.
“It should be done more simply, to make it so that citizens can invest and that it is a stable income after 20 years, for example – then everyone will be interested in investing in power plants. Serbia should work more on enabling households to buy their excess electricity from them,” says Dimić.
“It is neither planned nor realistic to stop the production of electricity from coal”
Jelica Putniković, editor of the Energija Balkana portal, believes that renewable energy sources cannot be a continuous source for the production of electricity in sufficient quantities.
“Serbia has not yet made a decision whether it will enter into the construction of a nuclear power plant on its territory or possibly enter into a partnership relationship with one of the neighboring countries that build nuclear plants. The construction of hydropower plants that are planned, such as the Reversible Hydropower Plant ‘Bistrica’ and HPP Đerdap 3, will increase the balance of green of energy in Serbia’s energy mix, but this still does not mean that it will be possible to close coal-fired thermal power plants. I think the best solution is to go into this process gradually, so that old thermal power plants are preserved as reserve capacity, as Germany did , for example,” explains Putniković.
At EPS, the main electricity producer in Serbia, they respond in a similar way. They state that “it is not planned, nor is it realistic to completely stop the production of electricity from coal, but to gradually reduce it”.
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