The southern Serbian city of Vranje has signed a preliminary agreement with the Euro Solar Park company for the potential development of a 150 megawatt (MW) photovoltaic park.
In the framework of the project, Euro Solar Park has established a strategic collaboration with a leading Chinese renewable energy developer, according to a press release issued by the Vranje Municipality.
Construction will reportedly be completed in several phases and the whole project will be implemented over a five year period. In the first phase, an up to 10 MW pilot project, located in Ranutovac across an area of ??30 hectares, will be installed.
The company is said to be in the final stage of negotiations with Serbia’s Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, in order to realize the final Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for the pilot project. Euro Solar Park intends to apply for a national tariff for an initial capacity of 10 MW, while the rest of the green energy totalling 150 MW, is expected be exported from Serbia and sold on the EU market.
On August 23, the Vranje municipality announced the signing of a cooperation agreement with an unnamed Chinese company. The local authorities will provide locations and construction permits, while the Chinese will invest €300 million to set up five solar parks – in Kriva Feja, Babina Poljana, Gornje Zapsko, Donje Zapsko and Meteris – and a solar panel production factory.
According to the assistant mayor of Vranje, Boban Stankovic, construction work on the photovoltaic project should commence in April 2012. He pointed out that the main factor which attracted foreign investors to Vranje was that this area has a total of 276 sunny days during the year.
Source: pv-magazine.com
