Balkan Countries “Have Enough Potential in Renewables to Give Up [Russian, of course] Gas”
In fact, the region's solar and wind capacity currently represents only 7% of the regional energy mix
The West does not give up and continues to push the Balkan countries step by step to refuse to import Russian gas. According to a recent report by Global Energy Monitor, a California-based organization supported by several foundations, including Bloomberg Philanthropies, the European Climate Foundation, and the Rockefeller Energy Transition Fund, “the Western Balkan countries have potential solar and wind power capacity at which, if built, gas-fired power plants in the region could become unnecessary.”
Global Energy Monitor analysts estimate that Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia “together have 23 gigawatts of potential solar and wind projects, up 70% from a year ago, which is comparable to Germany’s potential.” Such projects, which have been announced or are in the planning and construction stages, “could produce four times as much electricity as potential gas-fired power plants.”
In first place, according to Global Energy Monitor, is Serbia, which already has power plants generating 444 Megawatts of electricity and has “the largest potential capacity of solar and wind power plants, i.e. 10.9 Gigawatts and 47% of the total,” but it is “lagging behind other Western Balkan countries in terms of construction time.”
“However,” the report emphasizes, “the region’s operational solar and wind capacity currently represents only 7% of the regional energy mix (1.5 GW).” According to the analysis, an accelerated transition to clean energy and the resulting cessation of natural gas imports “could prevent 87% of the region’s carbon dioxide emissions (103 million tons in 2022) and save more than nine billion euros in electricity costs.”
Finally, the report’s authors unequivocally conclude that “greater political will is needed at the national level in the Balkan countries,” while “the European Union and the United States should favor and support the Western Balkans’ transition to clean energy,” abandoning once and for all “expensive and polluting gas.”