Western Balkan countries have ambitious plans to increase their electricity generation over the next years. But what will happen if they all become a regional energy hub? Will there be a demand for all the available electricity?
Western Balkan countries have ambitious plans to increase their electricity generation over the next years. But what will happen if they all become a regional energy hub? Will there be a demand for all the available electricity?
A growing apetite for new power plants, mainly coal-fired, in the western Balkans could end up with many of them becoming `white elephants, a study released by CEE Bankwatch Network on March 19 warns. Media across the region reported on the findings:
The Western Balkans countries have strong electricity export ambitions that create the danger of stranded assets, finds a new report launched by CEE Bankwatch Network today. If governments take electricity expansion decisions without taking due account of developments in other countries, the region will have to compete with other nearby exporters and may find that its power plants become uneconomic.
From a robust dataset we researched together with the University of Groningen and the consultancy 'The Advisory House', we've pulled out a couple of illustrations.
Currently presiding over the EU-backed Energy Community's Minsterial Council, Ukraine will likely try to dilute environmental regulations in the Treaty. But the country's ageing coal-fired power plants are troubled by inefficiency and pollution and in dire need of environmental improvements.
If you thought the purpose of a nature reserve is to protect wildlife from disruptive human interference, then you're wrong – at least when it comes to nature that's in the way of electricity infrastructure in Ukraine.
David Chipashvili from Bankwatch member group Green Alternative in Georgia talks about the opportunities and threats in bringing concerns from the ground to the attention of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
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