Novi Pazar converts heating plant from fuel oil to biomass

Novi Pazar has today inaugurated a new biomass heating plant that replaced the old fuel oil facility. It was one of three cities with the most polluted air in Serbia in 2021, so the investment is expected to lower air pollution and secure more efficient heating.

Switching the Novi Pazar heating plant from fuel oil to biomass is part of the project Promotion of renewable energy sources – Development of the biomass market in Serbia. The investment in Novi Pazar is estimated at EUR 7 million, while the entire project is worth EUR 108 million.

The project is being implemented by the Ministry of Mining and Energy, Germany’s KfW Development Bank, which provided loans, and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), which approved grants. The endeavor launched in 2017 is for the decarbonization of ten heating plants and switching them from fossil fuels to biomass.

Novi Pazar is the third in Serbia that built a biomass heating plant, after the municipalities of Mali Zvornik and Priboj.

The new plant will heat an area of 240,000 square meters in total, compared to the old facility’s 100,000 square meters

The heating plant has a biomass boiler with a capacity of eight megawatts and two auxiliary ones, with 4.5 MW and 7 MW, which will be fueled by natural gas, Sandžakpress reported.

The investment included the expansion of the heating network by 1,800 meters and the modernization of 700 meters of existing pipes. The new plant will heat an area of 240,000 square meters in total, compared to the old facility’s 100,000 square meters. The main contractor was the Austrian company Urbas, while Iskop gradnja was the subcontractor.

The old facility was in the city center and the new one was built outside of town, in the complex of the former Raška textile factory.

Mihajlović: Major reduction of losses in the heating network

Zorana Mihajlović, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Mining and Energy, said the new heating plant secures more efficient heating 24 hours a day alongside cleaner air and energy savings.

She highlighted the decrease of heating network losses from between 20% and 22% to below 8%.

Sulfur dioxide emissions will be zero, and carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced by 87%, she said, adding that the plan is to install another heating plant in Novi Pazar.

Switzerland supported the construction of the heating plant with EUR 1 million

Richard Colley, director of the Swiss Cooperation Office in Serbia, which supported the project with more than EUR 1 million, said his country would continue to assist the ministry in projects aimed at decarbonizing the economy, improving environmental protection and increasing the use of renewable energy sources.

German Ambassador to Serbia Anke Konrad said the bilateral cooperation was upgraded last October, when the two governments signed a climate partnership. It is a framework for joint work on a just energy transition and decarbonization, she added.