Blowing a new breeze into Serbia’s energy landscape
This case study examines the development of the Kostolac Wind Farm, a significant renewable energy project in Serbia, aimed at enhancing the region’s sustainable energy production.
About
The Kostolac Wind Farm project in Serbia addresses several critical challenges as part of the country’s broader efforts to transition to renewable energy.
Challenges:
The key challenges the project aims to solve:
- Serbia has traditionally been heavily reliant on coal mining and thermal power plants, resulting in abundant environmentally degraded land and depleted coal mines found around the country.
- The nation relies on imported energy, illustrating a substantial challenge of ensuring a stable and reliable energy supply in the face of potential disruptions to traditional energy sources.
- The country faces pressure to align its energy production with European environmental standards, especially in meeting its commitments under the EU stringent environmental regulations.
Solutions
The project presents the following solutions:
By repurposing the open-cast coal mine for renewable energy production, the project not only generates clean energy but also contributes to the environmental restoration and productive use of otherwise unusable land.
Construction of a wind farm with 20 turbines, each generating 3.3 MW, totaling 66 MW.
Wind turbines to be 179 meters tall, with a 117-meter pole and a 62-meter diameter turbine.
Impacts
- Expected annual production of 184 million kWh, enough to power approximately 30,000 households.
- By replacing the energy that would have otherwise been generated by burning coal, the Kostolac Wind Farm is expected to displace approximately 174,000 tons of CO2 annually.
- By adding 66 MW of wind power to the grid, the project reduces the nation’s reliance on imported energy and fossil fuels, thereby improving energy independence.