Thursday, May 11, 2023

City of Niš Heating Plant, Niš, Serbia

ADMINISTRATOR SAMANTHA POWER: I'm someone who has a long history in this region. I was a journalist in the former Yugoslavia, you might say, in the early to mid 1990s, and traveled to Serbia at that time and spent a couple months here off and on during the war time.

It is amazing, as you can imagine, to be back now as somebody with USAID who has the chance to partner with Serbian government officials, Serbian utility companies, Serbian civil society, and Serbian media to try to support the economy. To support the strength of the democracy, to support the environment. So it has been an incredible trip for me.

Even though I have spent time in Serbia in the past, I've never been to Niš before, so I'm learning a lot. I just came from the Technology Park where startups are gathering in order to share their ideas, and get funding, and develop their projects in the tech industry, in crypto, in biotech, in agrotech, and that is something USAID is really proud to support.

And here we are all seeing firsthand the importance of securing greater energy efficiencies. Several years ago, USAID launched pilot projects with the district heating company here in Niš, and already we are seeing huge returns on that investment. A modest investment by the United States’ development agency and great leadership by the team here has allowed the district heating company to secure great gains in efficiency.

So we are hearing about work that is done in communities to make apartment buildings much more energy efficient using insulation. A lot of energy is lost that way, we know that also in the United States, so that can be very important. 

I heard about the retention of steam so you don't lose the steam water out into the environment before that can be reused, and improved boiler systems, and the like. There are so many gains that can be secured if one seeks to make energy more efficient. 

We all know that ultimately, energy solutions for all countries will involve renewable energy that will help us protect the climate and stop the climate change that is causing a lot of damage to so many, for example, Serbian farmers, and American farmers as well. But in the meantime, as that transition occurs, these kinds of steps that USAID and the district heating leadership are working on together achieve many things at once. Yes, there is less energy that is consumed. That is incredibly important. That means less pollution in the air. But it also means tremendous cost savings for Serbian citizens. 

The pandemic has been a really, really difficult time for ordinary people in the United States, for ordinary people here in Serbia. Any cost savings that can be achieved, in any domain, is something that we want to support given, again, how difficult the economic times have been. 

And so as more renewables come online, Serbia will have to import less from outside of this country. As more efficiencies are secured, consumers will have to pay less and pollution will go down. It was really inspiring to hear that over the last few years, the Serbian people themselves are looking to hear more about what the district heating, and other utility companies and entities are doing to protect the environment. We see this also in the United States, citizen attention to environmental protection, to the protection of the climate, and of course to cost savings is getting more and more intense. And so we feel really privileged, as the United States, to be able to do a partnership to try to do something so constructive between our two countries. And I think that symbolizes, as well, the deepening partnership between the American people and the Serbian people.

So thank you so much for coming, for telling more people about the changes that have been secured and we look forward to doing more of this kind of work across Serbia. 

Thank you.

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