Renewable energy development trends in the Western Balkans

The goal of this paper is to analyze recent developments in the renewable energy sector in the Western Balkans - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. In order to achieve this goal, existing knowledge gaps regarding the use of renewable energy as a share of the region׳s final energy consumption had to be filled in. This was done by creating a reliable model for the calculation of these shares for the years 2010 and 2011. The results were then put together with the official data for the years 2009, 2012, and 2013, and a linear trend forecast was included based on the combined data. In this way it was possible to make an estimation of the time frame in which the countries with positive linear trend results would reach their renewable energy use targets. The results of the analysis show inconsistent development of renewable energy sources for countries outside of the EU. Combined with political challenges, such as the natural gas crisis of 2009, this creates increased volatility in the proportion of renewable energy in final energy consumption. Additionally, regulatory and market issues ranging from a lack of appropriate legislation and complicated administrative procedures, to poor coordination between various institutions act as barriers to increased investment in renewable energy.