Home Uncategorized @en Presentation of Results of the Social Cost-Benefit Analysis and the Reports on Financial and Technical Barriers for Investments in CHP Facilities

Presentation of Results of the Social Cost-Benefit Analysis and the Reports on Financial and Technical Barriers for Investments in CHP Facilities

Conference “Presentation of results of the social cost-benefit analysis and the reports on financial and technical barriers for investments in CHP facilities” was held in Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Belgrade on Thursday, 7 June 2018. The conference was organized within the scope of the project “Reducing Barriers to Accelerate the Development of Biomass Markets in Serbia” implemented by the United Nations Development Programme and the Ministry of Mining and Energy and financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). Speakers were: Dragan Loncar, PhD, Faculty of Economics in Belgrade, and Vesna Ruzic, PhD and Mladen Ilic, PhD, consulting firm “Energy Saving Group”.

Main goal of the project is to provide a more sustainable use of energy and to help the country to diversify its energy mix as well as the development of the biomass market for energy production in Serbia. To achieve this goal a comprehensive strategy has been defined, which includes among other things, grants for the construction of biomass Combined Heat and Power (CHP) facilities. Total volume of available grants is 1.6 million US$. Funds were allocated on the basis of a public call for all interested investors announced by the Ministry of Mining and Energy in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme in 2015. Six biogas CHP projects were selected with total installed capacity of 6.35 МW and total investment of US$ 22.6 million. All six facilities were constructed in the period between 2016 and 2018. These facilities were constructed in the municipalities of Bac, Zrenjanin, Alibunar and Aleksinac.

In the course of constructing the CHP plants, numerous problems and challenges were identified and faced by investors since the moment of deciding to initiate the project until its finalisation. It was also noticed that most actors involved in the process lack awareness of the numerous social benefits resulting from projects of this kind, while financial institutions perceive an unjustifiably high risk related to such projects. Wishing to facilitate the process for future investors and to promote a new investment cycle based on the example of these six plants supported by the project, detailed cost-benefit studies have been conducted, along with analyses and recommendations on how to overcome financial and technical barriers to initiating and implementing projects of this type. It is our hope that these studies will encourage financial institutions to ease the access to loans for such projects and that competent authorities, through legislative and institutional measures, will facilitate the process of construction and connections of plants.

We hope that these studies will move forward a constructive dialogue between many stakeholders and thus contribute to better awareness and mutual understanding among them, which should consequently result in a better investment climate for investments in renewable energy sources.