USD 55 million for higher energy efficiency in public institutions in Serbia - Projects ready, construction works start in 2011

In association with the Government of Serbia, the World Bank has provided 30 million dollars for promotion of energy efficiency in public buildings in Serbia prior to 2012. That is the second part of the Energy Efficiency Project in Serbia, launched in 2005, with a total budget of 55 million dollars.

The project, which is technically implemented by the Energy Efficiency Agency of the Republic of Serbia, is aimed at promoting energy efficiency in public facilities (schools, hospitals, care centers for old people and people with special needs). That will be achieved through different measures - improvement of thermal insulation, replacement of windows, better heating and interior light system installations, etc.

This project is launched by the Energy Efficiency Agency of Serbia, of which Director MA Bojan Kovacic explains in an interview for eKapija that 25 million dollars were spent in the first phase on over 70 facilities (including the buildings of the Clinical Center of Serbia), adding that another 30 million dollars are at the disposal prior to 2012 and that they will be spent on rehabilitation of more than 100 facilities, including the buildings of the Clinical Center of Nis.

- The World Bank has provided funds under very favorable terms. The results of the first phase show that energy savings are significant in all buildings and that energy consumption is now 40% smaller at the level of the whole project. Energy savings in individual buildings ranged between 15 and 63%, while reduction of emission of CO2 at the level of the entire project amounts to 42%. The investment return period for hospitals and schools is 5.3 and 12.8 years, respectively. The investment return period at the level of the whole project is 7.5 years. Since the investment return period is shorter than 10 years, which is duration of the grace period, it can be concluded that such loans can be repaid from energy savings achieved before the commencement of repayment of the loan, the same as in this case - says Kovacic and adds that major share of technical documentation (main projects) has been finished and that construction works on buildings should commence in 2011.

Tendering procedure for procurement of a power supply system for the Clinical Center of Nis is underway, while the first results of the public call for architectural-construction, mechanical and electric works on public buildings, aimed at reducing energy consumption, will be known in January.

In this way, seven buildings within the Clinical Center of Nis, health centers in Knjazevac and Surdulica, the school of agriculture and veterinary medicine in Vranje and Jovan Jovanovic Zmaj primary school in Brus will soon get energy-efficient facades and roofs. Electric installations in primary schools Vuk Karadzic in Priboj, Stari Grad in Uzice and Stevan Sremac in Borca will also be improved in the near future.

According to the public call, the Institute for Kids and Youth in Kulina near Aleksinac, Subotica health center, primary schools Heroj Ivan Muker and Olga Milosevic in Smederevska Palanka, Stevan Sremac in Borca and Sveti Sava in Velika Plana, and Patris Lumumba student dormitory in Belgrade will all get new facades and roofs.

2011 - the year of energy efficiency

At the initiative of the Energy Efficiency Agency of the Republic of Serbia and the Monitoring and Evaluation Center, a declaration by which 2011 is declared the year of energy efficiency was signed on December 22 at the Rectorate of the Belgrade University. Signatories to the Declaration are relevant government organs, representatives of business and non-government sector and the UNDP in Serbia, and it was also announced that other universities in Serbia would join the project. The year of energy efficiency is declared with the following aims:

1) Raising awareness of the concept of energy efficiency and mechanisms of its application among citizens of the Republic of Serbia

2) Increasing the knowledge and improving the skills of specific target groups, which are of interest to the future implementation of energy efficiency measures in the Republic of Serbia (young people, experts, representatives of companies, public institutions, local self-governments, etc.)