Lower feed-in tariffs for wind and solar energy

(Zorana Mihajlovic)

On Monday (10 December 2012), Serbian Energy Minister Zorana Mihajlovic presented a new set of measures and plans for the use of renewable energy sources in Serbia. As she stressed on that occasion, it is realistic for Serbia to increase the share of electricity generated from renewable sources in the overall energy consumption to 27 percent by 2020, reads a release at the website of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce (www.pks.rs).

The minister said that it would be achieved thanks to the measures within the action plan for the use of renewable sources of energy, which primarily envisages an investment in biomass, small hydroelectric power stations, geothermal energy, and wind and solar energy. The minister stressed that two international consulting companies had been hired to completely realistically determine feed-in tariffs that should satisfy both country and investors as partners in this business.

The national action plan for the use of renewable energy sources envisages a small decrease in feed-in tariffs for solar energy, and the proposed tariff ranges between 16.25 and 22.66 eurocents per kilowatt-hour, depending on the size of the solar power plant. A reason for this decrease is a drop in the price of equipment for solar power plants by over 40 percent since 2008, reads the release.

Proposed tariffs for wind energy are somewhat lower than before - 9.2 eurocents per kilowatt hour, whereas feed-in tariffs for geothermal energy range from 6.92 to 10.35 eurocents per kWh. Tariffs for small hydroelectric power plants with the capacity of up to 1 megawatt are increased, whereas those for bigger hydroelectric power plants and the ones using the existing infrastructure are reduced.

Interested investors and the rest of professional public will be able to discuss and comment on the Energy Ministry's proposal for feed-in tariffs for renewable energy sources. The duration of feed-in tariffs will remain the same, meaning that they will last for 12 years, but the total installed capacity for wind generators that could get the status of a privileged producer is increased to 500 MW.