Western Balkans: 'cheap' lignite plants built now will cost heavily later
Publisher: CEE Bankwatch Network
Volume: 4 pages, pdf
Description:
According to the EC-backed Energy Community's Regional Energy Strategy, by 2020 the Western Balkans and Moldova will spend EUR 28.8 billion on new electricity generation capacity. Nearly 45% of the new Western Balkan capacity (6195 MW of a total new 14 234 MW) is planned to run on coal or lignite. Per capita that is more than is planned by Poland, a country notorious in the EU for its reliance on coal and unwillingness to take action on climate change. Yet the Western Balkans countries all plan on joining the EU. Being locked in to lignite infrastructure will cause enormous costs for implementing the EU's 2050 decarbonisation goals. In addition, through the Energy Community, all of the Western Balkans countries have committed themselves to ensure that by 2018 all new power plants will be in line with EU legislation, namely the Industrial Emissions Directive. Considering how long it takes to build a power plant, this means that any plant built now needs to comply already. However several new plants planned in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia look unlikely to be in compliance, threatening to add massive extra costs for retrofits in a few years' time.