Serbian Minister of Finance Sinisa Mali and Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Djedovic Handanović have signed agreements that complete the financing for the implementation of the new program with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which introduces renewable energy sources in 10 heating plants in Serbia.
Mali signed a loan agreement worth EUR 30 million with EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso, while Djedovic Handanovic signed agreements on donations from the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) in the amount of EUR 4.5 million and the European Union within the Regional Program on Energy Efficiency (REEP) worth EUR 3 million.
Together with the previously signed agreement on SECO grants worth EUR 3 million, a total of EUR 40.5 million has been secured for the realization of the project, the Government of Serbia announced.
Djedovic Handanovic said that the EBRD was one of Serbia’s most important partners in the energy transition and that, from that day on, cooperation with the institution in the field of RES expanded to the field of central heating as well.
According to Djedovic Handanovic, the project will be implemented in 10 local governments: Becej, Bogatic, Kragujevac, Kraljevo, Krusevac, Novi Pazar, Nis, Pancevo, Paracin, and Vrsac.
The minister explained that, in Bogatic, instead of the coal-based boiler room, geothermal energy would be used, and that, in Novi Pazar, instead of coal, a heat pump using waste heat from the waterworks would be introduced.
Djedovic Handanovic said that, in Krusevac, the heat pump would enable the waste heat from the waste water treatment plant to be used in the central heating system.
Renaud-Basso pointed to the current dependence of the central heating system in Serbia on fossil fuels and their considerable energy inefficiency and emphasized that the aim of the project was to transform that system, improve the quality of the environment, and increase the energy security of Serbia.
The total value of the project “Renewable energy sources in district heating systems in Serbia—Phase 1” is EUR 40.5 million, of which EUR 10.5 million are grants, Ekapija reports.
