Serbia aims to triple wind, solar energy integration into grid - Dubravka Djedovic

Serbia aims to triple wind and solar energy integration into its grid in the next three years, Minister of Energy of the Republic of Serbia Dubravka Djedovic said, addressing the 9th Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue.

She pointed out that Serbia is implementing all the EU directives in energy transition without delay.

“This brings us to our ambition and target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to increase energy efficiency, and to increase the share of renewable energy in the energy mix. We have been traditionally a coal-based energy country with also a very high potential in hydro which we have utilized for the past 16 or 17 years, and we plan to continue to explore it more on the hydro side. On the wind and solar integration, we have managed to integrate some 550 megawatts of wind and solar so far, and we have a big ambition to triple that figure in the next three years,” the minister explained.

Djedovic said Serbia is going to do that simply by ensuring financial security of private investors through auctions, through certain hedging of electricity prices, and giving them predictability, stimulating further investments into the country’s energy mix.

“We need to ensure the transition is just and there we are really partnering with countries such as Germany who have gone through the transition, and also being aware that we need to make our transition systems stable and not endanger it. Of course, for investors, it's very important to know that they can rely on the green energy, and we want to give them that assurance. Currently, we have reached the new target of 27 percent of renewables share which was the target for 2020 and moving towards a new target of the European Union which is close to 40 percent of renewable energy share in our mix. This is ambitious, but we will be equally ambitious and at the same time realistic of what can we achieve through mainly private sector investments, but also public sector investments that we are working on as well,” she added.