The project is implemented within the framework of the umbrella project "On the way to the Balkan Green Deal: supporting the transition of the power sector to renewable energy sources in the Western Balkans".
Governments in the region are also finalizing their National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs), and electricity companies are announcing serious investments in renewable energy plant construction projects. The project lasted from January 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022. The project was financed by the European Chemical Foundation, in cooperation with AGORA EW.

The new project recently launched by the German expert organization Agora Energiewende in cooperation with local partners, including ASOR from Serbia, and consulting firms enervis and IEEFA, is called "Energy Transition of the Western Balkans - Balkan Green Deal". The goal of the project is to provide support to the authorities of the Western Balkans to implement the transition in the power sector from the gradual abolition of the use of lignite to the dominant representation of renewable sources.

As a reminder, the power systems of the Western Balkans mainly rely on thermal power plants, of which 90 percent are older than 30 years, and 40 percent are older than 40 years, so there is a need to revise energy strategies.

Agora Energiewende and partner expert organizations, among which ASOR represented Serbia, supported the region in the year and a half of the project to achieve a "green agreement" in the energy sector, through the following activities:

• Informing governments about strategies for phasing out the use of coal and replacing it with renewable sources;
• Demonstrating that the power system based on renewable energy sources is economically and energetically achievable;
• Determining the need for electrical energy storage, as an integral part of the introduction of variable renewable sources;
• Presentation of funding opportunities within the Green Agenda of the European Union for the Western Balkans;
• Providing evidence-based decision-making materials that will contribute to more ambitious renewables and coal phase-out policies;
• Contribution to the establishment of a regional dialogue on the challenges and opportunities of the transition from coal to renewable sources
• Building new lignite-fired power plants is not financially sustainable if CO2 is paid for