Two agrisolar projects launched in northern Serbia

In the vicinity of Kikinda, the capital city of the North Banat District in Serbia, two new agrisolar projects are underway: Solar Power Plant Delta and Brankov solar. The draft detailed regulation plans are available for public review until May 24.

The site for Solar Power Plant Delta is in the cadastral municipality of Banatska Topola, on agricultural land. It spans 180 hectares. Three agrisolar fields are envisaged on 157 hectares at the location in northern Serbia. The project includes a substation (110/35 kV), a link to a 110 kV power line and electrical and optical cables.

According to the draft plan, the power plant will have an 88 MW connection point to the transmission system. The sole owner of the project company is the Luxembourg branch of Chinese company Trina Solar, according to data from the Serbian Business Registers Agency.

The construction of a battery storage facility is also planned

Within each of the three solar fields of Solar Power Plant Delta, panels would be mounted on steel structures, elevated enough to enable the land below to be used for agricultural purposes, such as grazing for small livestock or growing crops that do not require extensive sunlight and do not grow taller than 60 centimeters, so that they don’t affect the operation of the panels, the draft detailed regulation plan reads.

Next to the substation would be a battery energy storage system of 18 MW in operating power and a capacity of 36 MWh, the document adds.

The draft detailed regulation plan was prepared by South Banat Energy Hazelnut, registered in the city of Pančevo.

The second agrisolar plant is planned in Mokrin

The location for the second project, Brankov solar, is in the cadastral units of Mokrin and Kikinda. The area covers 18 hectares, 97% of which is agricultural land.

The maximum capacity of the connection to the power distribution system would be 9.99 MW, as stated in the draft. Solar panels and associated equipment would occupy 15 hectares.

The area is located within the Mokrin hydrocarbon exploitation field. The photovoltaic facility would be equipped with underground electrical cables of medium and low voltage and optical cables. Within the covered area, a 20-kV transformer is envisaged.

The concept of agrisolar could be applied at the Brankov solar site, the draft’s authors noted.

Installing solar panels that allow a certain percentage of sunlight to pass through protects crops from extreme weather conditions, they wrote. Additionally, placing the panels above crops or utilizing space for grazing livestock avoids potential conflicts over the use of agricultural land for electricity production, as stated in the document.

It was developed by design firm Arhiplan from Aranđelovac. Both plans are available for public review until May 24.