Prishtina, November 24, 2021 – The Minister of Economy, Artane Rizvanolli participated in the roundtable discussion on the heating sector organized by the Balkan Green Foundation in the framework of the project ‘Multilateral Cooperation for Environmental Transformation Action’, supported by the Heinrich Boll Foundation (HBS) and institutional support by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF).

Along with Minister Rizvanolli, the Executive Director of the Balkan Green Foundation, Visar Azemi, and Arven Syla, who presented the paper “Decarbonization of the heating sector in Kosovo – Best Practices”, also presented the discussion.

Also present at the discussion were representatives of local and international organizations and institutions as well as representatives of the media.

During the discussion, Minister Rizvanolli spoke about the current state of the heating sector, the challenges faced by this sector, and presented the work that is being done in the feasibility study for District Heating Systems in Kosovo by WBIF.

This feasibility study is expected to be completed over the next 18 months and is analyzing the construction of new heating plants in all Kosovo Municipalities.

Further, the Minister shared the work on the pre-feasibility study; “Thermal energy and solar panels” which is being implemented by the EBRD and KFW for the District Heating of Prishtina “Termokos”.

During the discussion, Minister Rizvanolli stated, “every investment must be economically sustainable, both in terms of political level and in terms of personal level. “It must be economically viable for a family to use pellets, not electricity, or electric pumps, not coal”.

Further, Minister Rizvanolli stressed that the path to this sustainability includes the implementation of co-generation concepts, energy conservation, energy conservation through efficiency measures in residential buildings, and the replacement of coal, oil and its products with alternative sources.

Having these, the Minister noted that Kosovo will be able to: increase security of supply, energy efficiency, diversify energy sources, reduce air pollution and improve the quality of life.