Investors Discovering Cost-Effectiveness of Small Solar Power Plants Which Are Being Raised in Serbia in Droves – Electricity Prices Growing, Experts Advice Joining Forces

In the past months, there have been increasingly more plans for the construction of small solar power plants throughout Serbia. These are small solar facilities on land, with a power of up to 1 MW, which require building permits and which are made in order to deliver their entire production to the electrical energy system of Serbia.

Jelica Putnikovic, the editor of the Energija Balkana portal, says for eKapija that there are now many investors that want to build small solar power plants on a few hectares.

– Recently, I was contacted by a man who had just such an idea and who asked what he needed for one such project. I think that plenty of attention is paid here to large producers of renewable energy, which previously had feed-in tariffs and which now expect the state to secure the balancing for them. And this is a group of smaller producers which are not discussed much, and in fact, they have great potential and it is certainly good to secure as many such capacities as possible, because Serbia will then simply have to think less about big capacities for the production of electricity.

One of the investors which build smaller solar power plants is the company S.O.K. doo Kraljevo. As the owner, Srdjan Dragojlovic, said for our portal, they are currently finishing the procedure for the beginning of the construction of three solar power plants in Kraljevo, the cadaster municipality of Ribnica.

– From March, we should start building the power plants Ribnica 1, Ribnica 2 and Ribnica 3, each with 490 kW, and we plan to finish everything by September next year. We are investing 3 times EUR 350,000 in this project – Dragojlovic says.

He also reveals what the biggest obstacles are to the construction of small power plants in Serbia:

– The biggest problem is to obtain the requirements from the power distribution company for the designing and connecting of a solar power plant. For example, we waited for it for 8 months. We submitted the request in February 2021 and we are now waiting for location requirements for which we applied in August, we were also preparing the urban project, it all takes time. We expect the construction permit sometime in early January.

Our interviewee says that S.O.K. was the first company to build a solar power plant in Serbia, in 2010, in Kosovo and Metohija, for the purposes of the Devic Monastery.

– Two years later, in Kraljevo, we built a test solar power plant in order to test the cost-effectiveness of such facilities, so we now have two of our own that we have built and that are operational, the other one is in Bajina Basta. These are micro solar power plants, with a power of around 50 kW.

When asked how cost-effective such facilities are, Dragojlovic says that they are, but that the profitability period is 8-10 years. He reveals for eKapija that another solar power plant is planned for next year, of 500 kW, also in the Kraljevo area, for which they have already submitted the request.

Another such complex of three solar power plants is also planned in the Municipality of Doljevac, where the companies Hiperaktiva Grupa doo Beograd and GAT doo Novi Sad intend to build three solar power plants, Sajinovac 1, 2 and 3. The Detailed Regulation Plan of this project was available for public inspection until recently.

Finally, a small solar power plant might soon be raised in Stalac, considering that the Detailed Regulation Plan for the construction of the 999-kW solar power plant “Mladost 5 – Stalac” in the cadaster municipality of Stalac, municipality of Cicevac, is currently up for early public inspection.

The investor in the project is the company IGM Mladost Leskovac, which plans to put the produced energy into the transfer system.

Professor Nikola Rajakovic, the president of the Association of Energy Sector Specialists, says for eKapija that the increase in investments in small power plants which will produce for the market is very good news, although such investors face procedural problems that the state should solve.

– Each connection to the system takes a long time, because Elektrodistribucija Srbije just won’t turn to more flexible procedures that would meet the needs of small producers. The market circumstances are changing in a substantial way, and it’s like they still operate in the circumstances of centralized power distribution – Rajakovic believes.

He emphasizes the great benefit from small solar power plants up to 1 MW for the electrical energy system, but also beyond, for the whole society:

– Each produced megawatt-hour from those small solar power plants is a replacement for a megawatt-hour that has to be produced in thermal power plants. It is clear to everybody how important they are and that is why experts have a positive view of these small producers.

Rajakovic says that an additional simplification of all the procedures that precede the obtaining of the building permit should be secured for them and that they should then also be allowed to found special energy entities.

– What would be ideal is for several of them to associate inside a “virtual power plant” and appear in the electrical energy market in that form, because that would give them the highest chances for a greater profit – estimates Rajakovic and adds that what certainly works in their favor is the fact that the prices of electrical energy will not go down.

It is important to note that the projects for the construction of solar power plants do not belong among those which require an environmental impact assessment, because they are considered one of the cleanest renewable energy sources.

Jelica Putnikovic, however, notes that no green energy is entirely clean.

– Solar energy also carries problems of environmental impact, for example, when it comes to waste disposal, that is, the disposal of used solar panels – our interviewee says.

Professor Rajakovic, however, believes that all the aluminum for the frames of the solar panels can be recycled.

– Here too, some serious analyses are being done related to those problems, because that kind of recycling doesn’t work in Serbia at the moment. But, aside from that, it should be noted that the value of the solar power plant whose life cycle has ended is not zero for solar panels – you can sell aluminum and earn, whereas the post-life cycle value of other thermal energy facilities is negative, because you have to invest large amounts of money to close thermal power plants – Rajakovic says.

B. P.

S.O.K. d.o.o. Kraljevo

Savez energetičara Srbije Beograd

IGM Mladost a.d. Leskovac

Opština Ćićevac

Grad Kraljevo

Opština Doljevac

Gat doo Novi Sad

HIPERAKTIVA GRUPA DOO BEOGRAD

Stalać

Ribnica

solar power plant Mladost 5 Stalać

solar power plants Šajinovac

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Jelica Putniković

Nikola Rajaković

Srđan Dragojlović

small solar power plants

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