Photo: Masdar
Serbia’s largest wind farm, the 57-turbine Čibuk 1, has officially started operations today following a EUR 300 million investment. The wind farm with a maximum capacity of 158 MW generates power to supply 113,000 households and will displace 370,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.
Čibuk 1 is one of the wind farms whose output is financed under the feed-in tariff in Serbia. The power purchase agreement (PPA) for Čibuk 1 was signed in October 2016.
Čibuk 1 was developed by Vetroelektrane Balkana, a Serbian company wholly-owned by Tesla Wind, a joint venture between Masdar, the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, the Taaleri SolarWind I fund, managed by Finnish renewable energy infrastructure fund manager and developer Taaleri Energia, and the German development finance institution DEG – Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) recalled in a press release.
Mohamed Al Ramahi, CEO of Masdar, noted that Čibuk 1 is the largest utility-scale commercial wind project in the Western Balkans.
The inauguration was attended by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, Mining and Energy Minister Aleksandar Antić, UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, UAE Ambassador to Serbia Mubarak Saeed Al Dhaheri, and Mubadala Aerospace, Renewables & ICT CEO Khaled Al Qubaisi.
The EUR 300 million project was developed with financial support provided by the EBRD and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group. The EBRD arranged a EUR 107.7 million syndicated loan, of which EUR 55 million was syndicated to Erste Bank, the Green for Growth Fund (GGF), UniCredit, and Banca Intesa under an A/B loan structure. In parallel, the IFC provided EUR 107.7 million, the EBRD recalled.
GE Renewable Energy supplied wind turbines for the wind farm.
Learn more about #Čibuk1, #Masdar’s latest project in #Europe, which will provide #sustainable, emissions-free power to 113,000 homes and displace more than 370,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. pic.twitter.com/5Ry5dZGJSM
— Masdar (@Masdar) October 11, 2019
Do you have ever think that it takes 20 years of pollution to make 1 windmill. Last year we had a fire breakout in French river are in Ontario that killed hundreds of thousands of animals and species and was out of control for over 3 months and burned another month after and destroyed most of my friends homes and destroyed well over 220,000 Hector’s of land and now we have to see these god aweful windmills when we are up north. If you really feel you want these windmills, put them in the city or put up solar systems on every new build and skyscraper. City people are the worst polluters. And these windmills are costing us billions of dollars a year and only last 15 to 20 years. Hundred of thousands have exploded, leaked oil and caught fire. They do not last here in northern Canada. And not to mention they have also put them on farm land and multiple animals and ended up with cancer and same with the people in the area. Other animals have stopped producing. Put these in the city!!!
Wind farm Snowtown II in South Australia was built in 2013 at cost of AUD 270 million (~EUR 225 million at 2012 EURAUD rate). Its capacity is 270 MW from 90 turbines.
Project Cibuk 1 was EUR 300, capacity 158 MW from 57 turbines. Somebody earned a lot of money on this project.