Serbia needs to introduce auction-based renewables model - Energy Community director

BELGRADE (Serbia), October 18 (SeeNews) – Serbia needs to introduce an auction-based model for the purchase of renewable energy as soon as possible in order to make it cheaper, the Director of the Energy Community Secretariat, Janez Kopac, said.​

"In Serbia, still there is a feed-in tariff which is expensive. An auction-based model was introduced by North Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro, and Serbia should do the same," Kopac said in a video file posted on the website of news agency Tanjug on Thursday.

Moreover, Belgrade needs to introduce a carbon dioxide (CO2) issuance tax on coal-fired power plants, Kopac said on the sidelines of the Belgrade Security Forum. "Otherwise, if Serbia enters the European market for the trade of CO2 emissions, all coal-fired power plants would bankrupt in a single day," Kopac said.

Serbia's energy minister Aleksandar Antic said earlier this year that the government plans to draft an auction-based model for the development of renewable energy projects by the middle of 2019.

In Serbia, the main support scheme for the production of electricity from renewable energy sources is a feed-in tariff, ranging between 7.50 euro ($8.5) and 18.33 euro per MW. The producers of electricity from renewable energy sources can benefit from the financial incentive once they acquire the status of a privileged power producer granted once the renewable energy facility is connected to the grid.

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