Ministry of Energy has recently set windmills as background on their site even though there are no wind farms in Serbia, while the state itself is an obstacle for investors.
Although the Energy Law was passed last year, there are no necessary by-laws that would facilitate investment in wind farms – the stimulus measures, the connection to the grid, a new version of the regulation on feed in tariffs.
– Investments are on hold because of EPS too, which has not made a contract to purchase electricity for two years. Wind companies can not sell electricity directly to citizens, but they must do it through EPS, and without this contract nothing can be done – well-informed source says for “24 hours”.
He reminds that EU insists that the non-member countries use energy from renewable sources too, by 2020. Our share is about 21 percent, and we are expected to reach 27 percent.
– It may be from hydro power plants, but such an increase can be obtained only if we build Đerdap 3. We still have wind, solar and biomass. The state has to give subventions to every one producing electricity (it is a feed in tariff), for electricity from wind 9.5 cents, 23 cents from solar energy, and biomass up to 13.85 euro cents – says our source.
In Serbia it is allowed to build 450 megawatts of wind turbines. “Continental wind” plans to build wind farms here, and in the first phase there will be 170 MW.
– We are working since 2009, and throughout that time the government has not completed its part of the job. Contract on the purchase of electricity with EPS now exists only for small projects, but for larger there is no such model. For us it is important that the contract is adaptable in order to get a loan from banks, because we invest 30 percent and the rest comes from the loans – says Ana Barnabić from “Continental wind” and states that the Law on Energy makes for a good progress.
– By-laws should have been adopted a few months after the adoption of the law, and even today we are not any closer to that. However, the ministry has announced that they would adopt a new regulation on feed in tariffs. It tells me that the windmills on the ministry’s website are a good sign – says Barnabić.
EPS: they accuse because they can not justify loans
ANSWER – Milan Mirosavljević, head of the press service of EPS, rejects accusations wind companies addressed to EPS. “That’s not true. Ministry of Energy is required to issue permits to windfarms and EPS, according to regulations of the Government has the obligation to buy the energy produced and to provide a connection to the grid. However, I’m not aware that any such object exists in Serbia and actually produces energy. If there is no such object – then we should not talk about the purchase of electricity and contract signing” said Mirosavljevic. He believes that the real problem is that the owners of wind farms are not able to justify the loans they received, so they put the blame on the EPS.
Source Serbia Energy Magazine