Montenegro's EPCG says EBRD offers to lend 82 mln euro for wind farm project

PODGORICA (Montenegro), December 2 (SeeNews) – Montenegro's power utility Elektroprivreda Crne Gore (EPCG) [BEL:EPCG] said it has received a non-binding loan offer of up to 82 million euro ($99 million) from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for the construction of the 54.6 MW Gvozd wind farm.

The loan will be used to finance the acquisition of equipment for the wind farm under favourable commercial conditions, while tenders for the procurement of wind turbines, construction works, connections to the transmission network and other infrastructure will be conducted in accordance with the EBRD rules, EPCG said in a statement on Tuesday.

The construction of the wind farm is expected to start in 2021, while its commissioning will be carried out within 18 months after the start of works. The wind farm will be able to produce 150 GWh of electricity annually.

In September, the shareholders of majority state-owned EPCG approved a 58 million euro investment in the construction of the Gvozd wind farm, in cooperation with Austria's Ivicom Holding, to be financed through loans.

Ivicom and France's Akuo Energy launched in November 2017 the Krnovo wind farm in Montenegro via their local subsidiary Krnovo Green Energy. The project had an estimated cost of 120 million euro, with 48.5 million euro coming from a senior loan extended by the EBRD.

($ = 0.829191 euro)

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