Serbia to found streamlined public tender process for renewable development
The Houses of Parliament of Serbia, Belgrade (source: flickr/ Ujka Kevin, creative commons)
Alexander Richter
22 Aug 2012
Newly elected government in Serbia plans to stimulate the renewable energy sector and development with a new public tender system for energy permits that is also aimed at streamlining permitting for those projects.
The newly elected government of Serbia has announced that it “hopes to stimulate the country’s renewable energy sector by instituting public tenders for energy permits.”, so news of today.
A new rulebook will specify that permits for renewable energy projects/ sites, including geothermal, will be subject to a new tender system.
The “rulebook” will – similar to other countries – specify a time window in which an investor will have to finish a project or at least reach a defined level of completion.
The time level planned is currently two years, likely too short for geothermal projects. After that time a permit will be revoked. There is though hope that the definition of reaching a “defined level” of progress, will make it easier to deal with longer lead times for geothermal projects.
The plan is to issue all necessary permits with the tender in a one-stop process. Currently the process is rather complicated and requires project developers to obtain around 27 different permits from a variety of government agencies. The new model will simplify this extremely.
The new government seems to have a keen interest on seeing renewable energy development and investment thrive in Serbia. It also initiates an energy priority plan under which the country plans to invest between $5 to $7.5 billion for long term energy priority development, among the priorities geothermal and hydro are mentioned.
Source: UPI
