The increased quantity of the electric energy produced from renewable sources of energy (RSE), new investments, and improvement of the energy efficiency remain some of the main goals of the energy policy for North Macedonia in the forthcoming period. Its energy sector should provide reliable, steady and superb supply of energy and fuel for the customers, rapid economic development and increased care for the nature and proper environmental protection. These key goals should be accomplished through sustainable development, lowering the dependence on import, but also diversification of the fuel sources.
All these perspectives are pinpointed in the chapter Reforms of the Energy Market of the Economic Reform Programme (ERP) 2021-2023 that was penned by the Ministry of Finance and was adopted by the Government of North Macedonia. It contains 20 planned reform measures for all the key sectors in the economy of North Macedonia.
By the end of this year, according to the expectations, RSE’s share in the final energy consumption on the national level could be to be up to 23.9 %, according to the Economy Ministry’s Action Plan for RSE, but it could as well reach up to 25% by 2025. Regarding the Green Scenario in the Strategy for the Energetics Development by 2040, the participation of RSE in the final spending until 2030 should be up to 38%. Otherwise, according to the data provided by the State Statistical Office, RSE’s share in the final expenditure in 2018 was 18.2% and in 2019 it was 16.8%. The decrease is due to the unfavorable hydrology conditions and the low production of electricity by the hydro power plants.
The overall installed capacity of all the RSEnergy producers in North Macedonia in 2019 was 766.37 MW and the biggest participation was from small and big hydro power plants or 598.08 MW while the smallest were the power plants that are working with biomass i.e. 0.60 MW.
In the next 3 years, the RSE projects, according to the plans, should spend around 2 million EUR annually, out of which part will be provided from the state budget.
According to the previously signed 35 contracts, this year photovoltaic power plants with a power of 62 MW should be built in Macedonia. They should become operational by 2023. The government plans to continue with this measure, by issuing new public calls for additional installed capacities from photovoltaic power plants.
