Serbia

Serbia adopts feed-in tariff for electricity from renewable sources, changes energy sector development strategy.

The government has adopted a decree on incentives for producing electricity from renewable sources, setting down a feed-in tariff for all electricity produced at small hydro-electric power plants and other renewable energy facilities over 12 years from the start of production, local media reported over the weekend. Under the decree, state power utility Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS), which currently sells electricity in Serbia at about four eurocents per kWh, will pay:

  • 7.8 to 9.7 eurocents per kWh of electricity produced by small hydro-electric power plants with the limit of the size of the hydro plant to 10MW
  • 11.4 to 13.6 eurocents per kWh of electricity from biomass, 12 to 16 eurocents per kWh of electricity from biogas
  • 9.5 eurocents per kWh of electricity from wind energy with the limit of installed capacity of 450MW

EPS will also buy electricity from producers harvesting sewer and landfill gas at:

  • 6.7 eurocents per kWh, geothermal energy companies at 7.5 eurocents
  • co-generation plants at 7.6 to 10.4 eurocents
  • waste-fired plants at 8.5 to 9.2 eurocents

Electricity from solar energy will be paid the most, 23 eurocents per kWh with the limit of installed capacity of 5MW

The government also adopted changes to a strategy on Serbia’s energy development from 2007 to 2012 that call for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel imports and creating jobs in the energy sector. To achieve these goals, Serbia plans to draw EUR 200 million in investments for building renewable energy facilities with a total capacity of 100 MW by 2012, with small hydropower plants to account for 45 MW of the total, wind energy facilities for 45 MW, solar energy facilities 5 MW, biomass facilities 2 MW, and biogas facilities 5 MW.

The decree and changes to the strategy are expected to increase the output of electricity from renewable sources by 7.4%, or 735 million kWh, in 2012 compared to 2007. Mining and Energy Minister Petar Skundric said that Serbia can expect several billion euros in investments in the renewable energy sector over the next five years, noting that Serbia has potentials to produce 4.3 million tons of oil equivalent annually, 63% of which could be obtained from biomass, 14% hydropower, 14% solar energy, 5% wind energy, and 4% from biothermal sources.