Company Bioelektra opened yesterday a biogas combined heat and power plant (CHP) in Botoš village near Zrenjanin in northeastern Serbia. The facility has a capacity of 0.6 MW, while it will reach 1.8 MW upon the completion of all three project phases.

The first phase of the investment, worth EUR 2.5 million, was financed with a EUR 1.2 million credit line by Erste Bank, alongside a EUR 688,000 subsidiary from the government of the Netherlands. The project was also helped with USD 275,000 as a part of project ‘Reducing Barriers to Accelerate Development of Biomass Markets in Serbia’, financed by the Global Environmental Fund and delivered by United Nations Development Programme, in partnership with the Serbian Ministry of Mining and Energy.

The plant will use beet pulp and sugar beet waste, supplemented with corn, as it was announced by a bioenergy systems supplier HoSt, headquartered in Holland. It is expected that around 15 GWh of electricity per year will be sent to the grid. Side products are thermal energy and high-quality organic fertilizers.

“During each phase, agricultural fields in Botoš area will provide the plant with needed resources – 12,000 tonnes of compost of different origin. Residual heat generated will be used primarily for the production, and then for the heating of 5,000 square meters of greenhouse agriculture object. We also plan to provide thermal energy for local community public buildings and swimming pools to be used 365 days a year,” said Bioelektra’s director Branislav Pomoriški.

The ceremony was attended by minister Aleksandar Antić, ambassador of Holland Hendrik (Henk) G.C. van den Dool, Martine Klaver, representative of HoSt, Slavko Carić, president of the Executive Board of Erste Bank, and Maja Matejić, UNDP project manager.