Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Mining and Energy, prof. Dr. Zorana Mihajlović, congratulated all citizens of Novi Pazar on the new heating plant. "I have to say that I am very happy that we managed to keep our promise and that we are all here together today. All partners, everyone who participated and helped financially, technically, operationally, so that everything was completed on time," said Mihajlovic. She stated that the new heating plant will completely exclude fuel oil from use and will use biomass as the main energy source. "It is especially important that citizens will have heating 24 hours a day, that there will be zero sulfur dioxide emissions, and 87 percent less carbon dioxide emissions. Also, the plan is that the city of Novi Pazar gets another heating plant so that the citizens have cleaner air and the city has less air quality problems than before.
The value of the entire investment is 6.5 million euros, and the project is being implemented together with the German Development Bank KfW and with the support of Switzerland.
Richard Kohli, Head of Cooperation at the Embassy of Switzerland, said that Switzerland will continue to support projects implemented by the Ministry with the aim of decarbonization, improvement of the environment, reduction of consumption and increase of renewable energy sources in the production of electricity and heat. "Out of our donation of almost 5 million EUR, over one million EUR went towards investments into the district heating system of Novi Pazar. The project enables the consumers, the citizens and the environment of Novi Pazar to benefit from a sustainable, efficient and reliable energy supply provided by an economically sound and well-managed district heating company," said Kohli.
The German ambassador to Serbia, Anke Kondar, also addressed the attendees and emphasized the importance of signing the climate partnership, which is a framework for joint work on a fair energy transition and decarbonization. Rudiger Hartmann, director of the KfW office in Serbia emphasized that this project contributes to increasing energy independence and that it will improve the overall state of the environment.
"This is a very important day for the city and thanks to the Deputy Prime Minister and the team of the Ministry which was here almost every day, everything was finished on time and ready for the start of the heating season. We will have cleaner air as the heating plant will use cleaner fuels. What is especially important, is that the plant was moved out of the city center," said Nihat Biševac, the Mayor of Novi Pazar.
