Exploitation of geothermal energy as a priority of sustainable energetic development in Serbia

The actual global economic crisis, including all other well-known problems of sustainable development, reflects the direction of development of all countries in the world. Serbia, as a European country in its early stage of development, is trying to synchronize its progress with experience of other countries from the field of sustainable development and in accordance with rules in the field of energetic and energetic efficiency, and, as well as to promote and develop the sector of use of renewable sources of energy. On the other hand, Serbia is a country which largely depends on import of all forms of energy, which to a great extent affects its economic stability. Therefore, in Serbia the strategy for development of energetic was imposed and it considers all the aspects of development of energetic until 2015 and it also defines the priorities which can be mostly seen in the choice of forms of alternative sources of energy. These sources, based on some criteria, can be considered the most convenient for a gradual substitution of energy which is gotten from the conventional sources. Taking into account strategically defined goals and domestic potentials which are at disposal, as well as economic parameters, an alternative source of energy of basic importance for the future exploitation on the territory of Serbia geothermal energy, was chosen. The research points to the fact that Serbia will be capable to respond adequately to Kyoto protocol demands and to the European rules regarding the substitution of a certain amounts of fossil fuels by the fuel origin from the raw biological materials. The research defines the existent and non-existent capacities and the assessment of positive effects of usage of geothermal energy. At the moment, 160 long holes are being exploited whose water temperature is around 60 degrees C (140 degrees F) and their heat power reach 160 MJ/s. It was stated that adequate exploitation of existing and new geothermal sources a yearly would save about 500,000 tons of fossil fuels what is proportional to the 10% of the today's heating system. The total amount of heat accumulated at geothermal deposit sites in Serbia, up to 3 km of depth, is two times greater than the total amount of heat that may be generated by burring all available coal reserves in Serbia. Price of electrical energy produced from geothermal springs is estimated to be between 9.2 US cents/kWh and 11.5 US cents/kWh. In order to support exploitation of geothermal energy (as well as all other renewable sources of energy) the decision that all the producers of energy from renewable sources get a status of privileged producers were made. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd.