All set for construction of Široka draga wind park of 125.4 MW in BiH

Local firm Imres Smart Greenergy signed the deal with the selected contractor on its Široka draga wind power project. Their representatives said the construction of the facility near Livno in Bosnia and Herzegovina would last two years.

Fifteen years after the first steps, the Široka draga project reached the ready-to-build phase. The facility will comprise 19 wind turbines of 125.4 MW in total. The developer, Imres Smart Greenergy, signed a construction deal with Roco Commerce. Both firms are registered in Livno in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s west.

The location is on the southern slope of the Kamešnica mountain, west of the Buško lake or Buško blato. It is in the Herzegovina region, on the border with Croatia. Seventeen generators would be on the territory of the town of Livno and the remaining two in neighboring Tomislavgrad.

It is one of the most favorable areas in BiH both for photovoltaics and wind power.

The company values the investment at EUR 180 million, of which construction works are worth EUR 26.5 million. Imres Smart Greenergy earlier announced it would install the wind turbines in the third quarter of 2026. They would be at up to 1,517 meters above sea level, according to the project.

Connection power line to be 44.6 kilometers long

Interestingly, the company also needs to install an overhead power line of two times 220 kV. The path to Posušje, the connection point for Široka draga, is a whopping 44.6 kilometers long.

According to earlier estimates, it will cost another EUR 20 million.

Roco Commerce will hire 120 people to build the foundations and 20 kilometers of access roads, its Director Tomislav Badrov told state-owned Federalna TV.

The Široka draga project is on state land, rocky terrain classified as forest. The planned annual output is 403 GWh, equivalent to the electricity needs of 95.000 local households.

Široka draga used to include pumped storage hydropower project

The Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina gave its consent in January 2023 to issue the energy permit. Of note, in 2017 Imres established cooperation with Turkish firm Enrode for the Široka Draga project. Back then it included a plan for a pumped storage hydropower plant on Buško blato, which is an artificial lake.

At the time, Imres’s Director Pero Vrdoljak estimated its potential capacity at 1.12 GW. The Federation of BiH is one of the two entities making up Bosnia and Herzegovina. It consists of ten cantons. The other one is called the Republic of Srpska.

Krebs und Kiefer International (KuK) from Germany was hired in May for consulting services and oversight. On the occasion, Vrdoljak pointed out that the concession fee is 1.8%. He also said that the Government of Canton 10 holds 10% of the project.