Powering Europe’s newest nation: Kosovo energy crisis by Klisman Murati, 18 September 2017
Powering Europe’s newest nation: Investigating the Kosovo energy crisis by Klisman Murati, September 18, 2017 Last month, the tiny Balkan nation of Kosovo narrowly avoided an energy crisis by reaching a deal with two private property owners to access some of the lignite coal it needs to supply its power plants. Several weeks earlier, the state-owned power company, KEK, had come dangerously close to running out of coal after villagers living near the reserves requested more money to resettle. The situation had raised the question of whether Europe’s newest nation might be on the edge of a complete energy collapse, as KEK only possessed two weeks’ worth of reserves. It exposed the extent to which many developing countries still depend on coal as the most cost-efficient resource to meet their energy needs. Furthermore, it…