By Nikola Catovic
Only 10 years ago, drifting cooling towers and open coal mine pits were the profile picture of the Serbian energy sector. With the lion share of installed capacities used for the generation of electricity on brown coal and lignite, Serbia was topping the international polluting charts for decades. Some studies indicate that annually close to 2,000 premature deaths and thousands of respiratory and cardiovascular cases are linked to air pollution due to utilization of fossil fuels to meet the energy needs in the country.
For many years, renewable energy sources were only associated with massive hydropower plants on the Danube and Drina rivers, built during the former Yugoslav times. Solar PVs and windmills could only be seen abroad, often raising questions like: “Why are there no wind parks in Serbia?”
Even though abundant with natural resources, the instable political situation and lack of adequate laws and regulations halted the utilization of renewable energy sources at large scale for decades.
Small but decisive steps were taken only with the Energy law changes back in 2010. Since then, the country is trying to stick to its green agenda. However, there is no easy path to success. The adoption of the new regulations towards green technologies took off-guard all stakeholders in the market. Investors rushed in but were immediately hit by the harsh reality of an environment inexperienced to embrace the new technologies. Lack of local technical know-how, unaligned regulations and financial sector inexperienced in green project finance came back as a boomerang to the ambitious plans to transition from an extremely polluting environment to a much greener one.
So, where does Serbia stand today, 10 years after? Well, still approximately 60% of electricity is being produced in thermal power plants running on coal. Overall, in the past 10 years 10% of the generation capacity based on coal was replaced by renewable sources such as wind, small hydro, biogas and PV. But more work still needs to be done. As signatory of the Paris Agreement, Serbia has set its National Determined Contribution (NDC) to the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) with the commitment to reduce by 2030 its greenhouse gasses emissions (GHG) by 9.8% compared to 1990.
We at MACS had the opportunity to be at the forefront of that development wave by supporting both investors and financial institutions in building up the needed capacities and a profound understanding of renewable energy systems.
One of the landmark projects we supported was the 2 MW solar power plant Solar Matarova. Built close to the town of Kuršumlija, one of the poorest municipalities in the country, Solar Matarova still stands as the biggest PV project in Serbia, supporting also rural development.
The plant provides clean electricity for about 500 households. That may not sound like much, but the importance of this investment goes beyond the Kilowatt provided, as it is a lighthouse project for the local community and the wind power community of local investors, financiers, engineers, and workers involved in the implementation, operation and maintenance of the facility. For Solar Matarova, one of the first commercial renewable energy projects in Serbia, with our DD Plus concept we supported the investor in fine-tuning the project concept as well as the financier with the technical risk appraisal.
The Technical Assistance Facility (GGF TAF), which plays a key role in supporting the Fund’s promotion of energy efficiency (EE), resource efficiency (REff) and renewable energy (RE) provides targeted technical assistance to financial institutions (FIs) and project developers in conjunction with GGF funding. The facility operates hand in hand with the GGF, complementing its investments with the following activities: capacity building and training for GGF partners; validation and monitoring of energy/resource savings and CO2 emission reductions; strategic advice to the Fund’s managers based on research and analysis; as well increasing the awareness and acceptance of EE/RE solutions in the financial sector and among the public.
MACS will support UniCredit Bank Serbia by preparing perliminarly eligibility checks of planned investments against the GGF exclusion list and E&S requirements, as well as implement Technical Due Diligence assessment of RE investment projects. MACS will also support with the Monitoring of the construction stage and implement ex-post verification activities.
Ana Minić
Consultant for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Ana Minić
Consultant for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Ana is an electrical engineer focused on renewable energy, energy efficiency and carbon acounting. Her early interstes in renewable energy awarded her master theses on software tools for planning and design of PV plants with the prestious Nikola Tesla Award for Youth creativity. She was part of investment team for the development of one of the biggest wind power projects in Serbia, where she gained valuable knowledge about project planning and implementation. Later on she extended her skills to design of energy efficient electrical systems in the building sector.
At MACS Ana is in charge for research on enhanced renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies, GHG acounting and climate change. She directly supports financing institutions with the managment of their green loan portfolios and non-financial reporting matters related to climate issues.
Ana is fluent in English and German, besides Serbian as her mother tongue.