SEE Energy News

The Energy Community Secretariat called for closer coordination between Western Balkan electricity market integration and the EU’s carbon border rules. It warned that poorly aligned arrangements could discourage renewable investment and divide EU and non-EU electricity markets.

EU carbon-border rules could affect the prices and revenues available to renewable projects in Serbia, Montenegro and the wider Western Balkans. Lenders may need to distinguish between domestic sales, exports under default emissions treatment and exports meeting actual-emissions evidence requirements.

Battery operators across Southeast Europe are increasingly buying solar-heavy midday electricity and shifting it for sale in later hours, with Bulgaria leading the trend. Serbia has begun recording negative day-ahead prices, which can provide a variable source of low-cost electricity for storage.

North Macedonia is structuring its planned 100 MW / 400 MWh Bitola battery as strategic grid infrastructure, with an estimated cost of EUR 98 million. The EBRD is considering a sovereign-guaranteed loan of up to EUR 33.1 million, alongside other expected financing.

Montenegro is moving toward a strategic-partner model for a 60 MW / 240 MWh battery project after the government did not approve borrowing for EPCG’s planned procurement. A government working group is now tasked with the strategic project.

The Scornicesti battery will use non-recourse project finance with InvestEU risk support. Its merchant revenue model comes as Romania’s operational storage fleet expands and competition for market revenues grows.