The potential of renewable energy sources for greenhouse gases emissions reduction in Macedonia

Abstract

As European Union candidate country, Macedonia is in the process of adoption of the EU strategic energy policies, harmonization of the national legislation with the EU legislation and defining the respective national goals. In this regard, the Government has recently adopted the National Strategy for Utilization of Renewable Energy Sources (RES), prepared by the Research Center for Energy, Informatics and Materials at the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts. The main goal of this paper is to assess the potential for greenhouse gases emissions reduction by implementation of 21%-RES-scenarios from the Strategy. The corresponding emissions reduction is calculated against the baseline (reference) scenario developed within the Second National Communication on Climate Change. Furthermore, all potential RES technologies are analyzed from economic aspect and combined in a form of emissions reduction cost curve, displaying the total marginal cost of the greenhouse gases emissions reductionby RES. Finally, on the bases of the environmental and economic effectiveness of the considered RES technologies, as well as taking into account the country specific barriers, the priority actions for greenhouse gases emissions reduction are identified.