The government of the Una-Sana Canton has authorized Prime Minister Mustafa Ružnić to sign an agreement with Croatia’s Ivicom Consulting, part of Austria’s Ivicom Holding, concerning a project to build a wind farm in the Bihać area.

The wind farm is to be built under an investment of around BAM 120 million (some EUR 61.3 million), said Ružnić, adding that he is pleased the government has launched activities to enable the project’s realization.

According to a press release from the cantonal government – one of 10 in the entity of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) – the agreement is to regulate the parties’ relations concerning a change to the draft contract on the award of a concession to use construction land to build and operate wind turbines, each with a capacity of up to 5 MW, at the Teočak locality.

The agreement is designed to protect the canton legally and financially should courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) annul the concession, according to the press release.

The initial steps concerning the concession were taken back in 2016, according to earlier reports.

Other projects in the region

Ivicom Holding has a number of wind and other energy projects in the region.

In 2018, it signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Montenegro’s power utility Elektroprivreda Crne Gore (EPCG) concerning the implementation of a project to build the Gvozd wind farm with a planned capacity of 50 MW, under an investment estimated at around EUR 70 million.

Ivicom was also involved in Montenegro’s Krnovo wind farm project. The 72 MW Krnovo wind farm, built by France’s Akuo Energy and Ivicom, started operating in November 2017. The United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) renewable energy company Masdar has since signed an agreement with Akuo to buy a 49% stake in Krnovo Green Energy, which operates the onshore wind farm.