External Costs of Power Production in South Eastern Europe

The power production is a topic that implies a great number of contrasting aspects such as sufficient supply and lasting economic and social development, without burdening the environment. The estimation of the external costs is, therefore, fundamental in order to make an appropriate choice for a sustainable energy policy. To quantify the aforementioned costs, one needs to take into consideration mainly the actions of greenhouse gas emissions and the health damages caused by air pollutants, both of which strongly depend on the applied power production technology. South Eastern Europe is a sensitive area, where inefficient power plants are in operation and the reconstruction phase of energy systems is taking place intensively, however not always based on sustainability criteria. Following the ExternE method and the damage factors used for the monetarization of the externalities in EU 15 this paper is trying to estimate the monetary values of the external costs of power production in South Eastern Europe. Key–Words: External costs, South Eastern Europe, Monetarization, Energy production, Energy planning