Participants at a roundtable on how to accelerate the energy transition in the region and Serbia agreed that the move toward renewable sources is necessary and more cost effective than to build or even maintain the capacity for the production of power from coal. “An inadequate decarbonization is expensive and a late one is too expensive,” said Professor Nikola Rajaković from the School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Belgrade. He and other speakers also insist the transformation leaves no room for coal.

Scientists and experts must lead the energy transition – they accept its necessity faster than how the political will is being created, said Professor Nikola Rajaković from the School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Belgrade and the President of the Association of Energy Sector Specialists and Power Engineers of Serbia. Speaking at a roundtable on how to accelerate the energy transition in the region and Serbia, he stressed low costs and the speed of construction made photovoltaic technology superior and that the existing coal-fueled thermal power plants in Serbia are obsolete and with an incredibly strong impact on the environment.

Parallel to the pressure from the European Union on Western Balkan countries to pursue energy transition toward cleaner sources, the academic communities and professionals from the sector contributed to the acknowledgement that the transformation has already started and that it must pick up speed, Rajaković said. He added many locations in open-cast coal mines are “practically ideal” for solar power plants alongside the possibility to build wind farms and large batteries for storing energy.

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