Drakulic: The whole of Serbia could be heated with biomass, investments in basket willow necessary

The owner of Point Group, Zoran Drakulic, said that the whole of Serbia could be heated with domestic biomass and that electricity could also be produced from this renewable source. Hence it is not clear to him why gasification continues, when the Europe announced that energy source might no longer be used by 2028.

- We keep talking about Serbia's energy independence, and yet, we are promoting gas which will not be allowed for use in Europe starting from 2028. What an utter failure. I don't understand it, they are destroying our green energy, when we could heat and supply the whole of Serbia with biomass for one part of the year - said Drakulic in an interview with Beta.

He added that Serbia's government "destroyed 90 biomass producers who have not been able to work for four months, when in fact this is the fuel of the future, especially due to a new fast-growing plant, basket willow, from which that energy can be produced".

Serbia could invest in the production of basket willow, he said, because there is uncultivated land on which that plant could be planted, but "for reasons of corruption, some other energy sources are being endorsed".

Drakulic said that Dusan Bajatovic, the CEO of Srbijagas, announced 70,000 new households will be plugged into gas network, so he wonders what all those people will do if, for any reason, the supply of that energy source is cut off.

- Biomass is a purely ecological fuel, my company recently replaced coal with biomass at two or three companies, which had a problem with ecology and thus solved it - said Drakulic, who is also the president of the Privrednik club.

He pointed out that the basket willow is a fantastic plant, which is planted and grows on its own for twenty years and produces 60 tons of biomass per hectare, and a farmer can earn EUR 2,000 per hectare by growing it, which is more than growing wheat and corn.

- We could heat Serbia for six months and produce electricity for six months, for that it is necessary to plant 300,000 hectares of basket willow. Today, there are around 800,000-900,000 hectares of uncultivated land, and if the faculties were to be involved, the problem could be solved in five years time and Serbia would become energy independent. But the government won't do it, they are thinking only short-term - Drakulic said.

POINT GROUP INT DOO BEOGRAD

Point group

Zoran Drakulic

biomass heating

cessation of gas use

gasification

basket willow

production of basket willow