Macedonia in efforts to facilitate its energy transition

Macedonia fully and timely carries out its obligations under the new Energy Law, adopted in May. However, it currently has only 20 MW of installed solar power capacity. In order to improve the situation, the new Energy Law stipulates a change from the “feed-in” tariff to the “premium” tariff model.

With such a strategy, three to four million euros could be allocated for the construction of a total of 200 MW of solar power plants. This would potentially revive the construction industry, as overall, €200 million would have to be invested in the construction. As stated by the Macedonian Vice Premier, Prof. D-r. Kočo Angušev, apart from 200 MW of solar, the country is envisioned to have 150-200 MW of wind power plants.

At present, the only operational wind farm is the 36 MW Bogdanci. There are plans to upgrade the unit with another 15 MW and a license for another 36 MW wind farm is issued for the Bogoslovski site. Additionally, 72 small hydropower plants have already been built, 20 are under construction and a tender for the construction of another 20 is announced. The plan is to have 120 operational small hydro power plants in the near future with a total installed capacity of 100 MW.

Worth noting is that the Energy Community’s Ministerial Council recently adopted a decision lowering Macedonia’s 2020 target regarding the share of renewable energy sources in gross final energy consumption from 28% to 23%.

In 2017, the country had a total of 752 MW of renewable energy sources capacity: