Bosnia appoints team to negotiate 60 mln euro KfW loan for wind farm

BANJA LUKA (Bosnia and Herzegovina), March 4 (SeeNews) – Bosnia's Council of Ministers said it has appointed a team to lead negotiations with German development bank KfW towards concluding a 60 million euro ($65.8 million) loan agreement to fund a 48 MW wind farm in the Serb Republic.

The concession to build and operate the Hrgud wind farm - comprising 16 turbines of 3 MW each - in the municipality of Berkovici was given to the Serb Republic's power utility Elektroprivreda Republike Srpske (ERS).

The repayment period on the loan will be 15 years, with a four-year grace period and it will be allocated to the Serb Republic, the Council of Ministers said on Thursday following a regular session.

ERS earlier told SeeNews that the wind farm’s annual net production is estimated at 125.9 GWh, while the concession is granted for a period of 50 years.

ERS, which operates installed capacity of 1,348 MW, submitted a request for this concession back in 2014. This move was preceded by a detailed study of the wind potential of five locations in Berkovici by Danish company COWI, funded by KfW.

The Serb Republic is one of the two autonomous entities forming Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other is the Muslim-Croat Federation.

Bosnia has a further two power utilities - Elektroprivreda HZHB and Elektroprivreda BiH, both based in the Federation.

($=0.912228 euro)

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