The renewable energy business in the Balkans: opportunity vs. risk

Abstract

Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo – make up a heterogeneous region facing the complex challenge posed by the development and integration of Renewable Energy (REER) within the framework of the energy policy of each of these countries. . The conflicts derived from the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia damaged a large part of the energy infrastructure and even today, after more than two decades, the electrical transmission and distribution systems in many parts of the region continue to require significant investments for their adaptation and modernization. . These technical factors, together with other political-economic factors, such as the benefit for the domestic consumer who has historically enjoyed a “social” electricity price structure, still today significantly lower than the European Union (EU) average (table 1). , are fundamental when it comes to understanding the obstacles that the region faces to reduce the gap between the potential business in EERR and its degree of real development, granting them the role that theoretically corresponds to them due to energy potential and margin for growth.