North Macedonia’s renewables target set at 46 percent by 2025

North Macedonia has projected the share of renewable energy sources in electricity to reach 46 percent by 2025, according to the Economic Reform Program 2022-2024, submitted to the European Commission.

The Economic Reform Program (PER) 2022-2024, which identifies 20 structural measures, was adopted by the Government of North Macedonia. ERP is drafted annually by every candidate country for European Union membership in order to prepare for the economic and fiscal supervision within the union.

The document reveals planned environmental reforms in the sectors of management of solid waste and wastewater treatment, but one of the key challenges will be energy efficiency and renewable energy sources, said the Ministry of Finance, which wrote the ERP.

The total installed capacity of renewable power plants was 782 MW at the end of 2020

The share of renewables in electricity is set at 46 percent by 2025, with an intermediate target of 34 percent for 2022, and 37 percent for 2023. Total installed capacity of renewable power plants was 782 MW at the end of 2020, and it is expected to reach 1,493 MW by 2025.

“In the area of renewable energy, the country will continue its current support mechanisms for renewables electricity generation via feed-in tariffs and feed-in premia with auctions (granted in a tendering procedure). The country will promote further utilization of RES in the electricity sector (without incentives), but also in the other sectors through the introduction of the ‘prosumer’ concept, as well as by increasing the biofuels consumption in the transport sector,” the document reads.

The objective is to install up to 400 MW in photovoltaic roof-top systems by 2040

The ultimate goal of the activities is to achieve an ambitious target share of 38% in renewables in gross final energy consumption by 2030 in accordance with the country’s strategic documents.

According to the draft national energy and climate plan (NECP), the objective is to install up to 400 MW in photovoltaic rooftop systems by 2040 – either by the prosumers or systems from which the overall produced electricity will be used for self-consumption.

The new measure intends to establish the self-sustainable waste management system

The government plans another measure that wasn’t in the previous ERP – it said it would establish an integrated and self-sustainable waste management system.

It is planned to support the implementation of the Regional Waste Management System in the East and Northeast regions, as a service agreement, which will assist in the establishment of an interregional enterprise and will establish the waste management system. Also, the government said it would continue the preparation and revision of the national waste planning documents.

Investments over the next three years are estimated at EUR 35 million.

Investments of EUR 170 million are planned for wastewater treatment

The program envisages setting up wastewater collection and treatment infrastructure, in accordance with EU requirements, with investments of EUR 170 million from 2022 to 2024. The funds have been secured through IPA II (2014-2020) and loans from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

The measure aims to expand the length of sewerage networks, to increase the number of households connected to the network, as well as the number of treatment plants and their capacity, the document reads.