General Electric eyes Serbia's Kostolac wind farm project - report

BELGRADE (Serbia), June 15 (SeeNews) – General Electric (GE) is interested in participating in the construction of Kostolac wind farm by Serbian state-owned power utility EPS, local media reported.

GE believes that it is technically and commercially fit to take part in the project, the company CEO for Southeastern Europe (SEE), Gaetano Massara, said in an interview for news portal eKapija published earlier this week.

"The Serbian renewable energy market is very important for GE. Moreover, the adoption of a regulation framework on renewable energy sources in June 2015 opened the way for the launch of an attractive and sustainable renewable energy market in Serbia," Massara said.

In 2015, Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) said that the results of a feasibility had shown that it is possible to build a wind farm with 20 turbines and total installed capacity of between 50 MW and 60 MW in the area of Kostolac, in eastern Serbia.

GE is also ready to support EPS in the installation of equipment for monitoring greenhouse gas emissions by thermal power plants, Massara noted.

Serbia currently uses only 50% of its hydropower potential and this is also a niche that attracts the interest of GE, he added.

In February, GE said it plans to complete the modernisation of Serbian coal-fired thermal power plant (TPP) Nikola Tesla A this year. The project includes a steam turbine retrofit and commissioning of upgraded equipment which will help increase power output, reduce operational and maintenance costs and lower plant carbon footprint through less coal consumption.

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