BiH to get first hybrid power plant

Ventus industria plans to build the first hybrid power plant in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The firm plans to build a solar power plant and a wind farm in Ravno in the country’s south, near the border with Croatia and some twenty kilometers from the Adriatic coast.

Hybrid power plants combine different energy sources, usually solar, wind and hydropower, but also batteries. So far they haven’t been the favorite choice for investors in the Western Balkans, but recent announcements demonstrate the times are changing.

Last year in May, the Jasenovik hybrid power plant was announced in Kosovo*. It is envisaged to comprise wind turbines and solar panels. In addition, CWP Global is developing a project in Serbia that will have a battery system in addition to wind and solar.

The area for the power plant spans 280 hectares

In August, Ventus industria signed a contract with the Municipality of Ravno on the installation of wind turbines and photovoltaic panels with a total capacity of more than 100 megawatts (MW) on 280 hectares of municipal land.

Now, as part of the procedure for obtaining the necessary permits, the firm filed a request with the Federal Ministry of Environment and Tourism for a preliminary environmental impact assessment (EIA) for its Ruđer Bošković Energy Park project.

Ruđer Bošković Energy Park – an intelligent, hybrid system

The Ruđer Bošković Energy Park is planned as an intelligent, hybrid system that will comprise 10 wind turbines with an individual capacity of 6 MW and photovoltaic panels with an overall capacity of 20 MW, the request reads.

Total capacity is envisaged at 80 MW, and the total connection capacity will depend on the conditions issued by Elektroprijenos BiH and the TSO Independent System Operator in Bosnia and Herzegovina (NOSBiH), the country’s transmission system operator or TSO.

The combined annual electricity production from the two units is estimated at 164,230 MWh.

The power plants will be located three kilometers northwest of Ravno, in cadastral municipalities of Velja Međa and Dvrsnica, said Ventus industria. The firm is owned by Ivan Grbavac.

Several projects to make existing power plants hybrid are in the pipeline

Apart from the said three projects, which were originally planned as hybrid, there are several other existing power plants that are set to become hybrid.

Elektroprivreda BiH (EPBiH) intends to add a solar power plant to its Podveležje wind farm, and Albania’s KESH, also a state-owned electricity producer, plans to install a floating solar power plant on the Vau i Dejës hydropower plant reservoir and a wind farm nearby. It already built a photovoltaic unit on one of the dams.

In May, Hrvatska Elektroprivreda (HEP) announced it is developing its Korlat solar power project next to the wind park of the same name.

Serbia is preparing Đerdap 3, a project that would consist of a reversible hydropower plant, a photovoltaic facility, and a wind farm.