Floods highlight renewable energy market opportunities

As Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia continue to rebuild after the devastating floods of 2014, renewable energy development opportunities are popping up left and right, RenewableEnergyWorld.com portal’s contributor Ilias Tsagas wrote in an analysis. The Balkan region has enormous renewable energy potential but to date progress has been hindered by financing, weak legislation and poor grid infrastructure, the article said.

Croatia, the only European Union member state, had to comply with the bloc’s binding renewable energy targets. A national energy standard adopted by parliament in 2009 set a target of 1.2 GW of wind power and 52 MW of solar PV by 2020. However, energy market operator Hrote announced in that it would not provide feed-in tariff contracts to new wind and solar PV projects in 2015.

Serbia’s new energy law from late 2014 was, on the contrary, generating hope, bringing the country in line with EU’s energy policy of liberalization of the electricity sector. The government hopes the law will both entice investment and bring it closer to EU membership.

Bosnia and Herzegovina lacks a national renewable energy target and the existing framework for the promotion of energy from renewable sources is non-compliant.

Bosnia and Herzegovina lacks a national renewable energy target and the existing framework for the promotion of energy from renewable sources is non-compliant. That said, there are an increasing number of wind power projects. However, the country’s high wind potential, around 900 MW, is constrained by “limited grid capacity” and “legal caps”, the article said.