Serbia to Stop Construction of TPP Kolubara B? – Miners Protesting

The union of Rudaski basen Kolubara (Kolubara Mining Basin) has organized a gathering of workers at the construction site of this power plant next to the village of Kalenic, Municipality of Ub, due to, as they say, a letter sent to Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) by the Ministry of Mining and Energy, which requires all the activities toward the construction of the Thermal Power Plant Kolubara B to be stopped. Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Zorana Mihajlovic denies that the existing thermal power plants are to be shut down, but also points out that “we need to consider whether to build some new capacities or not”.

– No one is working on closing power plants and no one will lose their job. The same was speculated when the division of activities was being carried out at EPS, where no one lost their job either. But, at the same time, we need to consider whether we are to build some new capacities or not. Green Serbia does not entail the shutting down of thermal power plants or the loss of jobs at EPS. What it means is that we will work together on how to raise the quality of the environment and how to ensure, in the energy transition process, that there’s enough energy and that our thermal power plants are working along with the construction of desulfuring facilities and everything else needed for environmental protection – Mihajlovic told the press in Nis when asked about the protest organized by the Kolubara union.

She added that she had invited representatives of the union to a meeting.

CEKOR and KORS Welcome the Decision of the Ministry of Energy and Mining on Stopping the Construction of the TPP Kolubara B in Kalenic

The Center for Ecology and Sustainable Development (CEKOR) and the Coalition for Sustainable Mining in Serbia (KORS) welcome the decision of the Ministry of Energy and Mining to stop the construction of the Thermal Power Plant Kolubara B in Kalenic, the two organizations say in a joint statement.

– We believe that Serbia’s energy future does not lie in bad-quality coal which is burned at thermal power plants or in small hydro power plants, but in large and reversible hydro power plants and the use of solar and wind energy and biomass. We welcome the decision on stopping the construction of the thermal power plant in Kalenic, because it would entail a kind of energy slavery with terrible environmental and climate consequences, incurring debts and being exposed to the high fees of the EU for pollution and CO2, which at the moment amount to EUR 50 per a ton of CO2. This would mean that, at the moment, Serbia would have to pay EUR 2 billion, so the electricity bill would have to double because of CO2 alone, and if the pollution of water, land and air, as well as the opening of new mining cuts, which is in progress, are taken into account as well, the electricity bill of each citizen would have to increase 400% from the current amount of around 6 eurocents to 20 to 25 eurocents – the press release says.

Let us remind that the PE Elektroprivreda Srbije and the Chinese company POWERCHINA signed, in March 2020, the Preliminary Agreement on cooperation on the completion of the construction of the TPP Kolubara B in Kalenic (Ub), and the estimated value of that investment is around EUR 385 million.

Elektroprivreda Srbije ad Beograd

Power Construction Corporation of China Limited Ogranak Beograd

Ministarstvo rudarstva i energetike Republike Srbije

CEKOR Subotica

Center for Ecology and Sustainable Development

CEKOR

Coalition for Sustainable Mining in Serbia

KORS

Zorana Mihajlović

union of Kolubara Mining Basin

Kalenić

Kolubara B

construction of Kolubara B

stopping of the construction