About Project

The largest energy consumer in Serbia is the building sector with a share of approx. 34% of total final energy consumption. The building stock in Serbia comprises a total of 2.2 million private and about 25 000 public buildings. About half of all buildings are older than 50 years.

Current conditions in public buildings, especially in education facilities, are not state of the art. They are rather poor due to insufficient heating, lighting and ventilation.

In healthcare facilities, treatment conditions are poor due to insufficiently heated/cooled hospitals and poor indoor air quality.

The energy savings potential for the residential and public building sector is the highest of all sectors. They count at 35% and 40% of energy savings potential respectively.

Refurbishment and improvement of the building stock in Serbia is a great potential for energy savings but also decarbonisation of the buildings and long-term climate neutrality.

The EU has proposed to go further in this endeavour, by introducing nearly zero-energy buildings – the standard that each country should define in order to have a buildings with very high energy performance. The amount of energy required for such buildings is nearly zero or very low and should be covered to a very significant extent by energy from renewable sources, including energy from renewable sources produced on-site or nearby.

Background information can also be found on recently published KfW/WBIF article “Introducing Nearly-Zero-Energy-Buildings in the Western Balkans”.

Rapid renovation of the building stock in Serbia could bring even more energy savings if the renovation would include super thermos-insulation,extreme reduction of solar load through façade, highly effective and automated space conditioning and illumination systems and utilisation of renewable energy for own consumption.

The EU is promoting this concept through the additional 4.5 million EUR grant from IPA funds to ongoing investments in retrofit of the public buildings under the “Energy Efficiency in Public Buildings” Programme run by KfW and Public Investment Management Office – PIMO with the budget of 38.5 million EUR.

The action’s objective is to increase the energy efficiency and carbon emission reductions of targeted public buildings in Serbia through innovative and smart solutions, promoting inter alia nearly zero-energy buildings (NZEB) or higher.

It will result in significant energy savings and emission reduction of the selected public buildings.

The action also includes technical assistance in setting the standard for nearly zero energy buildings in Serbia.

The action started in August 2021 and will last until February 2026.