Biomass – Great potential, which Serbia has yet to take advantage of.
As anounced at the two-day conference on renewable energy sources, organized by the National Biomass Association SERBIO: The use of renewable energy sources in Serbia today is higher than in previous years, but still a lot needs to be done to increase the share of sustainable energy from renewable sources in the energy balance of Serbia and to reach the level of some developed countries in this sector.
That it has the potential and interests, confirmed the fact, that the conference “SEE Energy: Connect & Supply 2016”, held on the 15th and 16th November in Novi Sad, gathered more than 200 participants from 100 companies from Serbia, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, as well as representatives of national and provincial institutions, chambers of commerce, associations, investment and commercial banks and individual producers.
The event was opened by the Prime Minister of Vojvofina, Igor Mirović, who said that the Province, despite examples of good practice that exist in Vojvodina, will do a lot more work in the field of using renewable energy potential:
- The Provincial Secretariat for Energy will have a more prominent developmental function in this area next year. We are considering the possibility to subsidize, together with local governments, those technologies that will, primarily in public institutions, enable the transition to energy that is cheaper, requires less expenses and has no fossil character. On the other hand, we are ready to help potential investors, especially since our legislation provides regulated and fair conditions for investments in renewable energy. In the lower part of the energy facilities is the AP Vojvodina responsible, and we want to promote our capabilities through such conferences, especially in biomass, which in Vojvodina is still a side product of agricultural production - said Mirović.
The event was also supported by the German-Serbian Chamber of Commerce, whose president, Martin Knapp, pointed out, that the networking of domestic and international companies involved in the renewable energy sector is important, which is one of the goals of the conference.
The president of the National Biomass Association SERBIO Natasa Pavicevic-Bajic said that the aim of the association is to create a concept for profitable and greater use of biomass, and that the adoption of completely new skills and education of all participants in the system is very important for the development of this market.
- According to all analyzes, two-thirds of total resources are the resources of biomass, i.e. agricultural and forest biomass. Through a series of education, trainings, with the support that the state must provide for small energy projects and with the support of all levels of government, we will come to a path, from which we will all feel the benefit in Serbia. That is a path, that provides good rural and economic development – said the president of the association and emphasized that it is a good signal, that there is a great response of all stakeholders in this chain, which gives us hope that in the forthcoming period we will have a big share of sustainable energy generated from renewable sources in the energy balance of Serbia
She has pointed out, that the amendments to the Law on Agricultural Land are important for better cultivation of fast-growing forests. They provide long-term lease of land and create conditions for the development of this new bioenergy sector.
The biomass market is formed through the establishment of trade and logistics centers, which the vice president of SERBIO, Vojislav Milijić, was talking about. He presented the project of their development called BIORES and implemented under the European program "Horizon 2020".
- The project is coordinated by GIZ and besides our country, Bulgaria, Belgium, Slovenia and Finland also participate. The activities are aimed at reducing energy dependence on fossil fuels and increasing use of renewable energy sources, such as biofuels wood pellets, briquettes - said Milijić.
He explained, that the regional logistics and trade centers for biomass are centers, which are trading with a variety of products based on biomass, and that they represent an intermediary between local suppliers and customers, from individual households to heat and power.
The representative of the program of German Organization for International Cooperation (GIZ), Rainer Schellhaas, presented the program for the development of sustainable bioenergy market in Serbia, which is being implemented with partners, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Energy.
- We work closely with the organization SERBIO and it is a very fruitful cooperation. Biomass is a great opportunity for Serbia, which can help to improve air quality, reduce imports of fossil fuels and to achieve cost savings, said Schellhaas and pointed out that ,regarding this, there are many projects implemented currently in Serbia.
Besides many other speakers, such as Boris Dumnić from the Faculty of Technical Sciences, who spoke on conditions of operation and connection to DSEE cogeneration units, the sponsors of the conference introduced themselves as examples of good practice: the company Energy net was presented by Nebojsa Misic and the Austrian company Polytechnik by Viktor Radic.
Friends of the conference "SEE ENERGY - Connect and Supply 2016" were the World Bioenergy Association (WBA), the German-Serbian Chamber of Commerce (AHK) and the Standing Conference of Municipalities of Serbia (SKGO).