Funding for Bogdanci wind farm’s second phase secured

In two years, the Bogdanci wind farm, the first Macedonian wind power plant online since 2015, should have a total installed capacity of 50 MW, as the second phase will add 6 more wind turbines with a combined capacity of 13.8 MW.

The Bogdanci wind farm now has 16 wind turbines each with 2.3 MW, or a total of 36.8 MW, built under an investment of EUR 55 million, while the second phase envisages an investment of EUR 21 million.

Contracts on the Bogdanci wind farm second phase have been signed by the Government of Macedonia, state-owned power utility ELEM, and German development bank KfW. The German bank will provide a EUR 18 million loan, while ELEM will secure EUR 3 million from its own funds.

In the first phase of construction, worth EUR 55 million, 80% came from a loan, and the rest was provided by ELEM.

ELEM CEO Dragan Minovski said that the annual production of the wind farm is now 100 GWh, and after the completion of the second phase, it will be at 137 GWh.

After the end of the second phase, the share of renewable energy sources in ELEM’s electricity generation will increase by 3%, Minovski said, adding that CO2 emissions will be reduced by 35,000 tons per annum.

Finance Minister Dragan Tevdoski said that the loan comes with a repayment schedule of 12 years, with a grace period of up to 3 years and an interest rate of 1.15%.

The loan will be repaid by ELEM, with guarantees provided by the Macedonian government.

The biggest share of ELEM’s power production comes from coal-fired power plants with a combined installed capacity of 824 MW, generating 5,000 GWh annually, while hydropower plants (HPPs) with a combined capacity of 554 MW provide 1,200 GWh and the Bogdanci wind farm 100 GWh. The share of renewables in electricity production is about 20%.

At the end of 2017, Macedonia had 753 MW of installed capacity in renewables. The largest part comes from HPPs with 692 MW, wind power plants 36.8 MW, solar 17 MW, and biogas 7 MW.

The Ministerial Council of the Energy Community recently adopted a decision to decrease the Macedonian 2020 target for the share of renewable energy sources in gross final energy consumption from 28% to 23%.

According to the latest data from the Energy Community, the share of renewables at the end of 2016 was 18.2%.