Concession signed for Bileća solar power plant in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The company V&Z zaštita won the contract for solar park Bileća in the southeast of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is an important step in one of the numerous projects for the utilization of renewable energy sources in the town of Bileća in sunny Herzegovina.

The Minister of Energy and Mining of the Republic of Srpska Petar Đokić and the Director of V&Z zaštita from Banja Luka, Zoran Janković, signed a concession contract for the construction and use of solar park Bileća, envisaged with a nameplate capacity of 10 MW. The expected annual output is 16.5 GWh, the announcement reads.

According to the terms of the deal, solar park Bileća must be built within two years. The concession is for 30 years and the investment is estimated at EUR 8.9 million. V&Z zaštita initiated the tender and won.

The Republic of Srpska is one of the two entities that make up Bosnia and Herzegovina. The other one is called the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Municipality is entitled to 95% of proceeds

Before signing the contract, the concessionaire paid the one-off concession fee of EUR 266,000. When it puts the facility into operation, it is obligated to give 0.28 eurocents per kWh of electricity that it produces. The Municipality of Bileća is entitled to receive 95% of the regular proceeds.

The number of green energy projects in the small town of Bileća is one of the biggest in BiH. BIG Energia Holdings, a Hungarian subsidiary of Israel-based BIG Shopping Centers, was selected with its partners at an international tender for a combined wind and solar project on state-owned land near the village of Planik in the same municipality.

Solar power projects springing up across eastern Herzegovina

Earlier, a firm called Tehničko tehnološki centar (TTC), based in Istočno Sarajevo, submitted a request to the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Construction and Ecology of the Republic of Srpska for a preliminary environmental impact assessment for a solar power plant. The peak capacity of the Plana photovoltaic system is planned at between 94.7 MW and 99.7 MW.

EFT is the concessionaire for a 60 MW solar power plant also called Bileća. Hydropower plant operator Hidroelektrane na Trebišnjici, part of state-owned coal and power utility Elektroprivreda Republike Srpske, plans to build a hydroelectric facility of the same name.

Almost every municipality in east Herzegovina, in the territory of the Republic of Srpska, has a major renewable energy endeavor under development. Solar power is the favorite choice.