Usable energy potential of plant waste derived from agriculture is estimated to be 3.8 Mtoe per year. Animal waste is used for biogas production in biodigestors. Taking into account cattle breeding in Serbia, the estimation is that usable energy potential of animal waste is about 0.45 Mtoe per year. Energy potential of industrial and municipal waste in Serbia is estimated to be 1.4 Mtoe per year. Besides heat energy production realized by burning various industrial waste, municipal waste, and especially by burning plant waste, as well as fossil fuel savings, waste use for energy production is very important for the environment.

From the total amount of biomass designated for heating energy, approximately 3.9 million metric tons could be used to save an equivalent amount 1.3 million metric tons of extra light heating oil. The same amount of diesel fuel is consumed in the entire agricultural production process.

Serbia Biomass Resource Data

SOLAR Serbia

As in the case of other countries in the area, solar levels in the former Yugoslavia including Serbia are among the highest in Europe. The most favorable areas record a large number of hours of sunlight, with the yearly ratio of actual irradiation to the total possible irradiation reaching approximately 50 percent. Of course, the monthly distribution is particularly important in determining utilization for heating; and whether back-up systems will be needed during periods of extended cloudiness.

In 1998 annual sales of solar flat plate collectors was around 250,000 m². Some 28,000 solar thermal units were in operation, replacing the equivalent of 140 GWh of fossil fuel derived energy being used mainly for water and space heating in the domestic and tourist sectors.

The total potential for solar active technologies has been estimated to be approximately 50-60 percent of heating demand in the cloudier central regions.

Geothermal investigations in Serbia began in 1974, after the first world oil crisis. An assessment of geothermal resources has been made for all of Serbia. Detailed investigations in twenty localities are in progress. The territory of Serbia has favorable geothermal characteristics.

There are four geothermal provinces. The most promising are the Pannonian and Neogen magmatic activation provinces. More than eighty low enthalphy hydrogeothermal systems are present in Serbia. The most important are located at the southern edge of the Pannonian Basin. The reservoirs of this systems are in karstified Mesozoic limestones with a thickness of more than 500 m. Geothermal energy in Serbia is being utilized for balneological purposes, in agriculture and for space heating with heat exchangers and heat pumps.

Exploration to date has shown that geothermal energy use in Serbia for power generation can provide a significant component of the national energy balance. The prospective geothermal reserves in the reservoirs of the geothermal systems amount to 400 x 10⁶ tonnes of thermal-equivalent oil. The prospects for use of heat pumps on pumped ground water from alluvial deposits along major rivers are very good.

For intensive use of thermal waters in agro- and aqua-cultures and in district heating systems, the most promising areas are west of Belgrade westward to the Drina, i.e. Posavina, Srem, and Macva. Reservoirs are Triassic limestones and dolomites >500 m thick, which lie under Neogene sediments. The priority region is Macva, where reservoir depths are 400-600 m, and water temperatures are 80 °C.

The economic blockade of Serbia stopped a large project in Macva: space-heating for flower and vegetable green-houses over 25 ha (1st stage). The completed studies indicate that thermal water exploitation in Macva can provide district heating systems for Bogatic, Sabac, Sremska Mitrovica, and Loznica, with a population of 150,000.

In addition to the favorable conditions for geothermal direct use from hydrogeothermal reservoirs in Serbia, geothermal use can also be made of hot dry rocks, as there are ten identified Neogene granitoid intrusions. Geothermal exploitation program have been prepared, but they have not been brought into operation.