Western Balkans can skip gas for clean energy transition: Report. July 16, 2024
- Ana Cunha-Busch
- Jul 15, 2024
- 2 min read
By AFP - Agence France Presse
Western Balkans can skip gas for clean energy transition: Report.
The countries of the Western Balkans have enough solar and wind capacity to avoid gas-fired power plants in their transition to clean energy, according to a report released on Tuesday.
The six nations of the Western Balkans - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia - currently produce electricity mainly from coal and hydropower.
But the use of solar and wind capacities could generate "four times more electricity than the proposed gas fleet over its lifetime," said the report by Global Energy Monitor (GEM), a US-based NGO, making gas power obsolete in the region.
The six countries have a total of 23 gigawatts (GW) of utility-scale solar and wind capacity in projects that have been announced or are already in the pre-construction or construction phase, according to the report.
"This represents 70% more than a year ago and is comparable to Germany's prospective capacity."
"If these projects come on stream, they could replace all current and future gas power capacity in the region."
The leap to gas would save more than nine billion euros (US$9.8 billion) in energy costs and 87% of the region's CO2 emissions by 2022, according to the company.
Serbia currently has the largest share of utility-scale solar and wind capacity in operation and prospect in the region, at 29% and 47% respectively.
The report warned that the utility-scale solar and wind capacity in operation in the region represents only 7% of the regional electricity mix.
In addition, only 6% of prospective capacity is under construction and likely to come on stream, according to the report.
"Opting for renewable energy is a greener measure that makes economic sense," said Zhanaiym Kozybay, co-author of the report, in a statement, but warned that "more political will is needed at home".
In addition, the European Union, which all six countries aspire to join, and the US "should defend the region's clean energy potential instead of supporting expensive and polluting gas," said Kozybay.
bur-ljv/gv
Actually, Croatia and Slovenia are the western-most countries of the Balkans, a.k.a. the former Yugoslavia. I wonder what forms of energy production they mostly utilize?
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It's not prudent to continue having every structure’s entire electricity supply relying on external power lines that are susceptible to being crippled by unforeseen events, in particular weather storms of unprecedented magnitude. Also, coronal mass ejections’ powerful EMF effects leave electrical grids vulnerable to potentially extensive damage and long-lasting power outages.
It seems logical that every structure should try independently harvesting solar energy, at least as an emergency power storage system. There already are fossil-fuel-powered generator systems that engage once the regular electric-grid flow gets cut off, so why not use clean solar energy…