During 2020, the investments in new energy facilities from renewable sources of energy (RSE) were more than modest. For 2021, the Government announced very ambitious and significant projects that will start with issuing public calls during the first half of this year.
During last year, the energy projects remained in the shadow of priority health-economic measures for dealing with the consequences of the corona pandemic. And the basis from where the investments in RSE were supposed to start was the Strategy for the Energy Development until 2040 which was adopted in February 2020. One of the offered three scenarios was planned to be chosen in July, a green, referential and moderate transition. But everything was put to a halt.
According to all previous statements by authorities, the selection will most probably be the green scenario, mainly because the RNM has obliged itself with the EU and the international institutions for investments in projects from RSE to cut down the emissions and pollution. This will certainly be done by lowering the use of coal which is mainly used as an energy source for the production of electrical energy in Macedonia, up until it is put out of use completely. According to the strategy, the investments in RSE in the next 20 years are planned to be between 8 and 17 billion EUR. The lowering the air pollution, as one of the Strategy’s priorities in the green scenario, by the year 2040 it should be lowered by 61.5 % compared to 2005. The energy produced by RSE should reach a share of 45% of the gross final energy.
“It is undoubtful that the COVID-19 postponed the set investment projects. For example. the TEC Oslomej tender was being postponed several times because the investors weren’t able to be informed about the location. In the end, it was done online so that the process could continue. Because of the pandemic, a revision of the Strategy for Energy was made, so that the new conditions could be implemented in it especially the part that refers to the growth of the economy, industrial production, and certain changes in the transport section that will significantly influence the energy spending in the next few years.” said for Meta.mk Aleksandar Dedinec, a science associate at MANU’s Research Center for Energy and Sustainable Development.
He also said that currently the Strategy is being updated and in the period between January and March, a program will be made for the start of its implementation, according to the selected scenario.
What can be expected soonest from the new investments in RSE is the building of the two photovoltaic power plants on the location of the old mine at TEC Oslomej for which the preparations are underway. There is a big interest among domestic and foreign companies for this investment and the final selection of the investor will be made during the first half of 2021. Both power plants that will be using the power of the sun for the production of electricity will be built upon the public-private partnership model and they will have a capacity of 80 to 100 MWs. The partner from the private sector will have to hire 100 employees from the current power plant Oslomej. The estimated investment is around 60 million EUR.
In 2021, the solution for the status of the state owned TEC Negotino was announced. This power plant is inoperational for years and recently there was a call for the preparation of a feasibility study that will show whether the power plant can be repurposed and reconstructed to be working on gas on the same location, according to the public-private partnership process, or the facility will be completely sold to a private investor. The investment was evaluated to be from 200 up to 500 million EUR, and it was announced that the future power plant will have a capacity of around 200 MW. This will contribute significantly to the production of green energy into the energy system.
In 2021, the Government announced the start of the second phase of the building of Bogdanci 2 wind park. The park will increase the installed power of the current wind park by 13.8MW. The estimated investment is 21 million EUR. New wind parks are planned to be built next year in Bogdanci, Sveti Nikole, Demir Kapija, and Debarca.
The hydropower plant Chebren in Crna Reka is again under consideration in 2021. In December 2020, the prequalification phase of the public call for a concession of water for this major energy project has ended. There were offers from 10 renowned companies from Europe and China. The value of this project is evaluated to at least 500 million EUR and it will be built under the public-private partnership principle where ECM will be the partner that will represent the state. The hydropower plant will have the capacity of 333-458 MW for an annual production of 1.000-1.200 GW/h of electricity. For comparison, ECM’s annual production is around 4.000 GW/h of electricity.
