NEWS Kammen & Kittner in The Economist: ‘Energy in the Balkans’September 12, 2015

http://​www​.econ​o​mist​.com/​n​e​w​s​/​l​e​t​t​e​r​s​/​2​1​6​6​4​0​4​7​-​l​e​t​t​e​r​s​-​e​d​i​tor

Ener­gy in the Balkans

One crit­i­cal way to expe­dite EU inte­gra­tion of the Balka­ns (“Knock­ing on Heav­ens Door”, August 29th) is to start by build­ing an inte­grat­ed ener­gy sys­tem com­pli­ant with EU envi­ron­men­tal stan­dards and reg­u­la­tions. The pro­posed coal-fired pow­er plant in Koso­vo remains a prime exam­ple of a project that could set back EU acces­sion by decades. Rely­ing on lig­nite coal for elec­tric­i­ty pro­duc­tion in the region is not sus­tain­able for the envi­ron­ment or pub­lic health. Link­ing elec­tric­i­ty mar­kets to take advan­tage of load bal­anc­ing through hydropow­er projects in Alba­nia and by cre­at­ing a region­al low-car­bon roadmap will require sig­nif­i­cant cooperation—leadership traits that go hand-in-hand with join­ing the EU.

As the region expects to retire coal capac­i­ty in the com­ing decade, an oppor­tu­ni­ty emerges for a new ener­gy sys­tem to jump­start the lag­ging econ­o­my and enable a sus­tain­able tran­si­tion to the EU. How­ev­er, new pro­posed coal plants in Ser­bia, Mon­tene­gro, and Koso­vo con­flict with that vision. With Mon­tene­gro and Ser­bia expect­ed to accede by 2020 and 2022, respec­tive­ly, envi­ron­men­tal and health con­sid­er­a­tions should become a pri­or­i­ty to avoid fur­ther costs. Build­ing a sus­tain­able ener­gy sys­tem is essen­tial for eco­nom­ic growth in the Balkan region.

DANIEL KAMMEN
Pro­fes­sor and Direc­tor of the Renew­able and Appro­pri­ate Ener­gy Laboratory
NOAH KITTNER
Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, Berkeley

Dis­trib­uted ener­gy and infor­ma­tion (satel­lite TV) in Prizren, Kosovo