Huge interest in financing energy efficiency and renewable energy
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Highly visited International forum: “Sources of financing energy efficiency and renewable energy projects – Presentation of Funds from EU and the region and the presentation of “The Guide for financing energy efficiency and renewable energy”, organized by Central European Development Forum – CEDEF, under the auspices of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy and in cooperation with the Serbia Energy Efficiency Agency and Serbian Chamber of Commerce, was held in Belgrade, on Friday, September 16th, 2011.
Forum was opened by professor Dr. Milos Banjac, Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy of the Republic of Serbia. He welcomed over 250 participants, expressing his pleasure to open this highly visited meeting. “Serbia aims to achieve energy savings of 9% until the year 2020, and 1,5% until 2012. Investments in energy efficiency are profitable and they can payoff for three to five years or in case of more complex projects for 10 years”, said Banjac. He used this opportunity to thank the organizer of the Forum, CEDEF, for its work which is in accordance with the work of Ministry from the very beginning and which greatly assist the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure to implement energy efficiency measures in Serbia.
Speaking also on the Forum also were: Dr. Dimitrije Lilic, advisor for energy efficiency in buildings – Serbia Energy Efficiency Agency, Darinka Radojevic, project coordinator for sustainable development in cabinet of Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration, Petar Spasic from Sector for Funds and Development Assistance from European Integration office of the Republic of Serbia, Slobodan Petrovic, secretary of Energy and Energy Mining – Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Jovanka Arsic Karisic, chairman of the board at CEDEF.
Project Coordinator for Sustainable Development in the cabinet of Serbian Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration, Darinka Radojevic, said that National strategy for Sustainable Development doesn’t include special funds for financing development projects which include energy efficiency and renewable energy. Radojevic said that this is the practice in the world and that the funds are collected from state and local budgets, grants, development funds, loans and other ways of financing.
She said that the state currently supports projects in the field of Sustainable Development and that in the future they will rely mostly on the resources from EU.
Dr. Dimitrije Lilic from Serbian Energy Efficiency Agency reminded that 2011 is the year of energy efficiency in Serbia and added that Energy Efficiency implies modernization that requires gathering of significant financial resources.
Petar Spasic from Sector for Funds and Development Assistance from European Integration office stated that planning is the key for gathering resources from the EU funds and emphasized the importance of aligning different sources of funding for projects.
Slobodan Petrovic, expert in energy at the Serbian Chamber of Commerce pointed out that Chamber began its activities in these area in 2002, and since then they were conducted in various training programs and programs for helping Serbian economy. “I am very glad that know we have a significant critical mass of key entrepreneurs in the field of energy efficiency and renewable energy”, said Petrovic.
Jovanka Arsic Karisic, chairman of the board at CEDEF, welcomed the participants of the Forum and introduced the “Guide for financing energy efficiency and renewable energy” which was distributed to all participants. “CEDEF is the most active promoter of energy efficiency and we are especially proud to launch this guide for whom we believe will be valuable assistance to anyone who wants to invest in energy efficiency and renewable energy”, said Arsic Karisic.
Maria Victoria Borg, special attaché of the EU Delegation in Serbia, gave her impression of the state of energy sector in Serbia. “Serbia has made good progress in the energy sector, EU support for improving Energy Efficiency will prove decisive for competitiveness, security of supply and meeting the EU goals by 2020“, said Borg.
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