WB: Demand for energy to increase by 70%

TIRANA, June 4 – With demand for energy in the six countries of the Western Balkans expected to increase by as much as 70 percent in the coming two decades, policymakers in the region are now being faced with the daunting challenge of meeting this demand in an affordable and sustainable manner, says the World Bank. The expected annual increase in demand for energy of 3 percent over the next 15 years will require Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia to invest more $70 billion in this sector.
Energy supply in the Western Balkan countries is heavily dependent on imported fossil fuels, costing over $4.1 billion in 2012.
“In the past, it was common to introduce small pilot projects to demonstrate the viability of energy efficiency measures. What we are seeing now is a strong commitment by these governments to scale up this agenda, which we believe can result in tremendous energy savings in the years to come,” says Jas Singh, a Senior Energy Specialist at the World Bank.
A new report, Scaling-Up Energy Efficiency in Buildings in the Western Balkans, provides a roadmap for how countries in the region can achieve significant and sustained efficiency gains in one of the most promising areas for energy efficiency savings: public buildings. Key steps identified include establishing sustainable financing schemes, where public agencies can repay the investment costs from the energy savings, thereby allowing the funds to resolve. This, along with pooling of government and donor funds into national-level programs can help create a more coordinated approach, strengthen existing institutions and achieve savings at a greater scale.