Orano warns of financial problems at Niger uranium plant
The West African nation increasingly seeks new partners, such as Russia, in its mining sector.
Aleksandra Tomczak, writing for the World Coal Association, says the European Commission is supporting World Bank funding for a new coal-powered plant in Kosovo.
The support comes in the form of a letter to the World Bank president from EU Commissioners for Energy and Enlargement.
Kosovo has a major problem with energy shortages, writes Tomczak, with power outages reported 90 days a year and 80% of entrepreneurs saying the shortages are the main problem in business development.
The former Yugoslav republic relies on two brown coal power plants to generate electricity but the plants are old and inefficient. The new power plant is expected to use new technology that is 42% efficient.
All this bodes well for the country’s coal producers, says Tomczak:
Kosovo has no natural gas infrastructure or resources but local studies show that it could have one of the world’s greatest brown coal reserves. That’s why brown coal lies at the centre of the new Kosovo Energy Strategy for 2019, with the key objective to build a new brown coal plant.
Cityscape of Prizren, Kosovo’s second biggest city, is from Shutterstock
