The unpaid health bill – how coal power plants in the Western Balkans make us sick
By Vlatka Matkovic Puljic, Health & Environment Alliance (HEAL), Health and Energy Officer, Balkan region, e-mail: vlatka@env-health.org According to the latest report of the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) health impacts of coal fired power stations in the Western Balkans (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia) create up to 8.5 EUR billion per year […]
Turkey to return incentives for power plants on coal
The government of Turkey is set to reintroduce incentives and environmental exemptions for coal-fired power plants, Hürriyet Daily News reported. The measures were cancelled by the Constitutional Court over ecological concerns. The draft law will pave the way for all privatized coal-fired power plants to be exempted from environmental regulations until 2020, the portal reported. These power plants […]
NGOs ask China to shift investment focus to green energy
Electric power projects with lignite in Southeastern Europe pose a significant threat to European Union’s climate and energy goals that countries of the region should be fulfilling on their path to accession, an association of environmentalist groups said. China, along with 177 other countries of the world, has signed the Paris Agreement last month, but […]
Health costs of coal plants prompt policy rethink
A study quantified public health costs of polluted air from coal-fired power plants in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo* at up to EUR 8.56 billion per year. The calculation is made up of costs including from premature deaths, respiratory and cardiovascular hospital admissions, new cases of chronic bronchitis and lower respiratory problems, […]
The big green challenge: can we change fast enough?
By Maja Turković, Energy Consultant, co-author of the CIRSD study ’A Roadmap for Deploying Renewable Energy Sources in Serbia and the Regional Perspective’ Fossil fuels have been harnessed as an abundant and easily accessible source of energy for two centuries. This cheap energy enabled the growth of populations and consumption levels; and facilitated technological innovations […]
PPC Renewables granted permit for biomass facility
A wholly-owned green energy subsidiary of Public Power Corporation, the main power utility, has been granted a permit to develop a 25 MW biomass power plant in the Kozani area, northern Greece, by the Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE), Energy Press reported. PPC Renewables’ facility is planned to run on fuel provided by agricultural crops […]
EPS plans solar and wind projects at coal-fired plant complex
State-controlled Electric Power Industry of Serbia (EPS) called for offers in the procurement of a preliminary feasibility study with a general project for the construction of a solar power plant in the slag and ash pond of thermal power plant Kostolac A, located 100 kilometers east of Belgrade. It also placed a public invitation for […]
Phantom energy companies drain government funds
Thermal power plant operators AES and ContourGlobal, alongside renewable energy sources, will remain the primary sources in the energy mix of Bulgaria, a recent document shows. The latest pricing changes show that AES’s Maritsa Iztok-1 and ContourGlobal’s Maritsa Iztok-3 set their share in the system at 20% and 25.2%, respectively, 3e-news.net reported. Meanwhile, according to […]