EBRD mulls lending 7 mln euro to Macedonia's ELEM for 10MW PV plant

SKOPJE (Macedonia), September 12 (SeeNews) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said it is considering providing up to 7 million euro ($8.1 million) in loans to Macedonian state-owned power producer ELEM for the construction of a 10MW photovoltaic plant.

The PV plant will be built on the exhausted coal mine of the Oslomej thermal power plant (TPP) and the electricity produced will be directly sold in the nearby grid, the EBRD said in a statement late on Tuesday.

The total cost of the project is 10 mln euro.

“The project will target the Green Transition Quality by supporting the development of a 10MW solar PV plant which is expected to displace approximately 12,500 tonnes of CO2 annually,” the lender said, adding that the electricity produced will be sold through the market without depending on a support scheme such as the feed-in tariff.

EBRD also said the objective of ELEM is to make its first investment into PV plant, as part of the company's strategy to decarbonise and develop a portfolio of projects from renewable energy sources.

“Furthermore, ELEM will take advantage of the proximity of the existing TPP substation, and at the same time the project is likely to offset ELEM's obligation to invest in rehabilitating the site.”

ELEM provides around 90% of the entire domestic production in Macedonia.

"Average annual production is about 5,000 GWh from TPP (installed capacity of 842 MW) and 1,200 GWh from HPP (installed capacity 554 MW). ELEM also operates the first wind farm in the country, with installed capacity of 36.8 MW and production of about 100 GWh annually.”

($ = 0.86231 euro)

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