VREOCI: The Kolubara coal mine in Serbia never closes – twenty-fours hours a day, 365 days per year, excavators work around the clock gnawing away at the soil to extract the fossil fuel.
Although most of the world is shifting away from using coal due to accompanying pollution, Serbia continues to rely on it, depending on coal for some 70% of its power.
The fuel ensures low electricity rates and provides thousands of jobs in the poor Balkan country, according to AFP.
Aside from coal, a quarter of Serbia’s energy comes from hydroelectric power stations, with the remaining fraction from renewable energy sources.
The coal extracted at Kolubara powers enough stations to generate half of the country’s electricity, with over 11,000 workers employed to extract between 26 million and 27 million tonnes of coal every year.
Electricity rates are significantly lower in Serbia than in much of Europe — in June, a kWh was 0.096 euros, a third of the average of 0.289 in the European Union (EU).
Serbian populist president Aleksandar Vucic often mentions the low electricity rates during his speeches.
IMF pressurizes Serbia
However, Serbia has been under pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to raise rates and has had 3 tariff hikes this year.
The IMF said in a press release in June that ongoing electricity and gas tariff hikes have contributed to reduce fiscal subsidies and will be vital for financing necessary energy investments over coming years.
Serbian authorities insist the fuel source remains crucial to powering everyday life even as they view an eventual transition away from coal.
Serbia’s Energy Minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic said that the country needed to carefully and prudently plan the abandonment of the older capacity.
He said that our objective for 2030 is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40.4% compared to 1990 levels, and to have 45% renewable energy.
