Home News The Ministry of Mining and Energy Signed Six Grant Contract for Construction of Biomass and Biogas Fired Combined Head and Power Plants

The Ministry of Mining and Energy Signed Six Grant Contract for Construction of Biomass and Biogas Fired Combined Head and Power Plants

On November 13, 2015, the contracts with the representatives of six companies granted with the funds for the construction of new biomass/biogas fired combined heat and power (CHP) facilities were signed in the Ministry of Mining and Energy. The contracts worth USD 1.6 million were signed by the Minister of Mining and Energy of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Antić, who stressed the strategic orientation of the Government to raise the contribution of renewable resources in the total energy production in Serbia.

With these new facilities Serbia will get the total of 6.32 MW of installed electric power capacity of plants using renewable and locally available energy sources, while the total value of the investment for six facilities is USD 22,600,000.

The grants for these investments are provided through the Project „Reducing Barriers to Accelerate the Development of Biomass Markets in Serbia“, financed by the Global Environment Fund (GEF) and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in partnership with the Ministry of Mining and Energy.

The ten-member Commission composed of the representatives of the Ministry of Mining and Energy and the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection of the Republic of Serbia, presided by Miloš Banjac PhD, which worked with the technical support and the participation of the observers from the UNDP, evaluated the projects according to the criteria of environmental viability of the plant fuel, level of development of the region where the investment is made, how modern the applied technology is, efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the plant and full utilisation of technical potentials of the plant.

Individual grants per project will make up to 15% of its investment value, or the maximum of USD 275,000, while the investment value of each project exceeds USD 1,200,000.

Thirty percent (30%) of the allocated funds will be awarded after signing the contracts, and the remaining 70% will be paid after the realisation of the investment. The contracts were sogned with the companies FORKOM d.o.o. Belgrade, BGS GAMA BP d.o.o. Bač, BGS ALPHA BP d.o.o. Bač, BGS BETA d.o.o. Bač, BIOGAS ENERGY d.o.o. Alibunar and BIOELEKTRA d.o.o. Botoš, Zrenjanin.

On this occastion, in his statement to the media, the Minister of Mining and Energy of the Republic of Serbia underlined the importance of the project because it would be a part of the construction of new energy plants in Serbia, but also for the promotion of biomass and biogass which are important resources of our country, saying that the Government was strategically oriented towards increasing the contribution of renewable resources in overall ebnergy production in Serbia. Mr. Antić stressed that the realisation of these investments would significantly contribute to the stability of energy system and the improvement of sustainable use of energy through the diversification of its sources and the development of biomass market used for generating energy in the Republic of Serbia.

The UNDP Energy Portfolio Manager Maja Matejić emphasised that the UNDP achieved excellent cooperation with the Ministry of Mining and Energy, and that this project was a fine example of intersectoral cooperation as the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment Protection also participated in its implementation. She also stated that the cooperation with the Ministry of Mining and Energy would advance as a big project in the sphere of energy efficiency which had been recently jointly prepared would also be financed by the Global Environment Fund with USD 2,5 million. The total value of the future project dealing in the implementation of the Law on Energy Efficiency on the local level would be around USD 20 million. In this manner, thanks to the cooperation between the UNDP and the Ministry of Mining and Energy, Serbia has managed to raise significant funds from the Global Environment Fund.