Renewables

State obstructs use of solar energy by households, firms in BiH

bih solar damir miljevic energy transition

Damir Miljević (photo: RESET)

Published

August 30, 2024

Comments

comments icon

0

Share

Published:

August 30, 2024

Comments:

comments icon

0

Share

The decarbonization of electricity consumption in Bosnia and Herzegovina through the use of solar power by households and businesses is being hindered by legislators and power utilities, according to Damir Miljević, a member of the Management Board of RESET.

Speaking at the round table ‘Financing of public projects: Environmental and economic sustainability of coal-fired power plants’ in Banja Luka, organized by the Sarajevo Media Center, Damir Miljević said that another major issue is the absence of dialogue on the closure of coal mines and thermal power plants, Capital reported.

The easiest way to decarbonize domestic consumption, in his words, is to allow citizens and businesses to produce energy for self-consumption using solar panels. However, this approach has been halted in BiH, he added.

Miljević: Power utilities must understand that today anyone can produce electricity

This was done, he said, by adopting poor worded by-laws or by not adopting them at all. At the same time, state-owned power companies are blocking this development to maintain their monopoly, according to him.

In the meantime, foreign investors are rapidly doing everything they can to tap on the renewable energy potential in BiH, and the state is not protecting itself by preventing the export of the cheaper electricity they produce, Miljević stressed.

Closing coal mines and coal-fired power plants can be either cheap or expensive, which presents another problem, according to Miljević. He believes that BiH can decide determine the outcome.

At the same time, power utilities mistakenly think that they will be the drivers of the energy transition, but that hasn’t been the case anywhere in Europe, he noted.

Pavlović: the market will shut down coal power plants

Miljević said that these companies have to be transformed because everyone can produce energy today, so they would have to find another business, for example, balancing, storage, aggregation services.

Economist Zoran Pavlović said that it should be clear to everyone that electricity will be more and more expensive, especially from imports. The only solution is to turn to domestic renewable energy, primarily solar, which is not lacking in BiH, he added.

Pavlović noted that the market will shut down coal-fired power plants. Their production has become too expensive, he said.

Comments (0)

Be the first one to comment on this article.

Enter Your Comment
Please wait... Please fill in the required fields. There seems to be an error, please refresh the page and try again. Your comment has been sent.

Related Articles

Rolls-Royce SMR to start works with CEZ on small modular reactors

Rolls-Royce SMR to start works with ČEZ on small modular reactors

22 July 2025 - Rolls-Royce SMR and Czech utility ČEZ have signed an early works agreement within their strategic partnership for small modular reactors

croatia vireas agency north AI energy

Meet VIREAS: new AI-powered virtual assistant for energy

22 July 2025 - The VIREAS app is an interactive platform that enables users to engage with an AI assistant on various topics related to energy

Slovenia grants renewables district heating cooling

Slovenia kicks off grants program for renewables-based district heating, cooling

22 July 2025 - Slovenia is cofunding the construction or restructuring of district heating and cooling systems using renewable energy sources

Germany supports Serbia in clean energy supply, environmental protection

Germany supports Serbia in clean energy supply, environmental protection

22 July 2025 - Serbia and KfW signed a EUR 135 million loan for the second phase of the Green Transition Development Policy Operation (DPO II) program