Serbian, US governments to sign agreement on strategic cooperation

BELGRADE - Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic and US Ambassador to Belgrade Christopher Hill agreed on Tuesday a Serbia-US intergovernmental agreement on strategic cooperation, to be signed in Washington soon, would be a major step in advancement of bilateral cooperation, in which the energy sector occupies an increasingly significant position, the Ministry of Mining and Energy said.

"In the past decade, too, the US was one of the biggest investors in Serbia and I believe this agreement will open the door to new investment in the energy sector, which will contribute to greater energy security and a sustainable transition to clean energy sources," Djedovic Handanovic said.

She noted that Serbia had made major progress in the past two years when it comes to attracting investment, through advancement of its legislative framework and successful auctions for market premiums for renewables.

"The strategic goal is for one half of MW-hours to be generated from renewables by 2030, through investments by the public and private sectors. One of the projects that will boost the EPS (Serbia's national power company) capacities is building 1 GW of solar power plants along with battery storage, to be carried out with a strategic partner, a consortium led by the South Korean company Hyundai Engineering," the minister said.

She added that a preliminary justifiability study for a Djerdap 3 hydropower plant had been completed and that technical and economic analyses would show the optimal capacities of the future plant.

"The Djerdap 3 hydropower plant is one of the pillars of the energy system for the future that will enable us to balance energy obtained from new wind and solar plants while maintaining the security and stability of supplies," she said.

Hill said he was very pleased with the development of energy projects that also involved US companies, and that the agreement to be signed in Washington would boost cooperation further.