Serbia DH plant to use 17MW heat pump
31st December 2024
SERBIA: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a loan of up to €105m for a solar-thermal power plant, featuring a 17MW heat pump, in Novi Sad.
The loan will finance the construction of the plant for the Novosadska Toplana district heating company. In addition to the heat pump, which will draw heat from the river Danube, the power plant will feature 38,600m² of solar collectors, an 850,000m³ seasonal heat storage system and a 60MW electric boiler, incorporating advanced power-to-heat technology.
The project is expected to be co-financed by an investment grant of up to €21m, plus €3m of project implementation assistance, from the EU and other donors through the Western Balkans Investment Framework.
The project will be implemented by Novosadska Toplana Novi Sad in conjunction with the Ministry of Mining and Energy, the city of Novi Sad, and state power company Elektroprivreda Srbije.
Producing more than 118,000MWh of clean renewable heat energy annually, the project is expected to reduce the district heating agency’s natural gas consumption by around 29%.
In addition, seasonal thermal energy storage, combined with power-to-heat solutions, will enable the storage of surplus electricity from renewables, enhancing grid balancing capacity, supporting electricity market operations and reducing investment risks for new wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) renewable energy projects.
“I believe that the integration of a solar collector and a heat pump that uses the heat of the river Danube into the district heating system of Novi Sad will be a turning point that will show the way that other cities and municipalities in Serbia will follow,” commented Serbia’s mining and energy minister Dubravka Đedović Handanović.
“Thermal energy produced in a sustainable manner will cover more than 20% of Novi Sad’s heating needs, which will replace the consumption of more than 16,000,000m3 of natural gas. The project is unique in Serbia, in that it also includes an electric boiler for balancing excess electricity, which will provide additional capacity for balancing energy produced in solar and wind power plants.”
