Development of renewable energy sources (RES), particularly wind farms and solar power plants, has been accelerated in the last few years in the region of South East Europe. RES had the highest growth rate so far In 2013th. The share of RES increases in the world, but in some countries comes to a standstill. The development largely depends on national support, and set limits for RES.
During 2013th, it was installed 12 GW of wind power plants in Europe. Share of South East Europe countries amounted to eight percent, while Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Albania still have not built a wind farm.
For the development of photo-voltaic power plants, the 2013th was a historic year, given that the five European countries took over a number of 1GW of installed capacity. Germany leads with 3.3 GW. In the region, Romania stands out with 1.1 GW. Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania and Macedonia have no new capacity.
The main problems in the integration of renewable energy sources are the transmission grid, balancing market, legislation, funding and bureaucracy.
Investments in the transmission network require long-term planning, long-lasting procedures for construction and major investments. It is essential to have as accurate information as possible for scheduled electricity flows and identification of the most important expansion of the transmission network.
Projects of common regional interest are: Romania – Bulgaria, 400 kV transmission lines for connection and transmission of 1,800 MW of RES to consumption centers; reinforcement in the coastal network in Croatia; underwater cable Montenegro – Italy.
In the most countries RES market depends on the legislation. The regulatory and political uncertainty had a negative impact in many countries. The future of the European market is uncertain in the coming years. Drastic reduction of incentives will affect the decline in some markets.
Despite the difficulties, building of RES capacities in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Albania is certain in the future. Economic reasons can be found in the fact that some of these countries face the problem of electricity import during the winter months. In addition, the time to build RES capacities is less than for conventional power plants. With the construction of the first large-scale solar or wind farms, it can be expected the increased interest of investors.
