The seventh in a row was successfully completed in Novi Sad SEE Energy business conference. The second day of the conference was dedicated to fundamental discussions by experts on the key topics of the energy transition.
The first panel of the day dealt with ESG principles in the energy transition: innovations, challenges and opportunities. The latest trends and technologies aimed at supporting ESG goals are presented, including strategies for reducing the environmental footprint of companies, improving social responsibility and aligning business with regulatory requirements. Special emphasis is placed on how ESG principles can contribute to attracting investments, improving reputation and increasing market competitiveness. Concrete examples from the practice of companies such as Siemens Energy illustrated the future challenges and opportunities that ESG principles bring.
The second panel, titled Solar, nuclear energy, green hydrogen and biomassattracted a lot of attention. They discussed Serbia’s ambitious plans to obtain around 70 percent of electricity from renewable sources by 2040. The participants expressed the opinion that these plans are extremely ambitious and difficult to achieve without the integration of nuclear reactors, if the country wants to abandon coal as an energy source. As nuclear energy in itself is a topic that develops a debate wherever it is raised, it was the same this time. The question was also singled out moratorium on nuclear energy in Serbia, more specifically the legal ban on the development or use of nuclear technologies for the production of electricity. Serbia is one of the countries that decided not to use nuclear energy for electricity production, which means that there are no nuclear power plants or plans for their construction, although several countries near us have them. Therefore, its abolition would be only one of many necessary steps before the actual development of this form of energy.
The third panel, Battery systems for the sustainability of road infrastructurefocused on the role of battery systems in green energy storage and the development of electromobility. In order for green energy not to “evaporate”, batteries are currently solutions for energy storage, and therefore it is also important that the electricity from the charger does not come from coal, so that electric vehicles really have their full purpose. The discussion covered the challenges in the public charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, with a special reference to the company Charge&GO, which has installed 138 connectors for public charging so far. The increase in the number of charges recorded by Charge&GO is particularly impressive, from around 300 charge registrations in 2021 to tens of thousands this year. The growth highlights not only the increase in the use of electric vehicles but also the potential problem of saturation of chargers, which could be busy all day. This trend puts additional pressure on the infrastructure and requires careful planning in order to avoid long waits, given all the challenges that arise even without this problem, such as electricity and connecting chargers. The panel emphasized the importance of educating users about the use of applications and RFID cards, as well as the characteristics and use of electric vehicles in practice.
The last panel of the SEE Energy conference, called Batteries and mains connectionwas opened by Nikola Grubor, representative of MT-KOMEX company, shedding light on the perspective of large battery systems as the inevitable next step in the evolution of energy. Grubor stated that, similar to solar technologies that have been developed in recent years, battery systems have become a key topic only recently, especially under the influence of new regulations that require the integration of these systems into larger energy projects, as well as due to economic factors such as electricity purchase prices.
When the battery systems are not in operation, the solar panels either directly supply electricity to consumers or feed the energy back into the grid. However, problems arise when energy consumption is not synchronized with production, which can lead to the loss of excess energy. The introduction of battery systems enables energy storage, which improves the efficiency of investments and prevents energy loss. Grubor explained that the integration of battery systems into solar energy increases the total investment costs by about 10 percent, but provides considerable flexibility, enables the provision of additional energy services and facilitates the delivery of energy to the network in periods when it is most needed. Due to technological progress, batteries are becoming more affordable and developed, which leads to more and more obvious advantages of their use.
Energy portal
Source: energetskiportal.rs
