EBRD provides loan to Bosnia's Banja Luka for construction of biomass heating plant

The EBRD said on Monday it is lending 8.4 million euro ($9.8 million) to Bosnia's city of Banja Luka for the construction of a 49 MW district-heating boiler plant fired by wood biomass.

With the funds, the capital of Bosnia's Serb Republic will acquire an equity stake in the newly established district heating company Eko Toplane, it said in a statement.

Eko Toplane is the builder, owner and operator of the new plant.

Bosnia and Herzegovina suffers from particularly high energy intensity, with a high proportion of expensive and polluting heavy fuel oil in the energy mix and untapped resources in terms of energy savings and efficiency, the lender said.

“We are very proud to sign this agreement with the city of Banja Luka today. It is a pioneering approach that combines financial and ecological considerations. It will demonstrate that commercially sound and environmentally friendly operations are not only possible, but indeed represent the way forward", Ian Brown, head of the EBRD in Bosnia and Herzegovina, said.

The loan is being provided under the lender's Green Cities Framework.

Since the beginning of its operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the EBRD has invested more than 2 billion euro in over 140 projects in the country. The Bank focuses on supporting restructuring and expansion of the local private sector, forging closer links with wider regional markets and promoting a more efficient and sustainable use of resources.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is made up of two entities, the Serb Republic and the Federation.

($=0.8576 euro)

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