Germany's KfW Bank Lends 60 Mln Euro to Macedonia's Energy Sector

SKOPJE (Macedonia), November 29 (SeeNews) – German government-owned development bank KfW lent a total of 60 million euro ($79 million) to Macedonia for two energy projects, the Macedonian Finance Ministry said on Monday.

Of the total 27.1 million euro will go for the reconstruction of six hydro power plants of state-owned electricity producer ELEM, and the remainder are allocated to the construction of a wind park in southern Macedonia, the ministry said on its web site.

The loan should be repaid in 15 years, with a grace period of five years.

The estimated cost of the first project is 31.88 million euro, of which 4.78 million euro are provided by ELEM. The upgrade should be completed by 2013. The six plants that will be upgraded are Globocica, Tikves,Vrutok, Raven, Vrben and Spilje.

The second project, for a wind park in Bogdanci municipality, is estimated at 75 million euro. The wind park will have an annual output of over 100 gigawatthours (GWh).

The implementation of the wind park project is expected to start in the first half of 2011, Finance Minister Zoran Stavreski said in the statement.

ELEM, comprising two thermal and seven hydro power plants, generated 5,886 GWh of electricity in 2009, up from 5,615 GWh generated a year earlier.

($=0.76 euro)

Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!