Elixir’s EUR 300 million investment plan includes wind, solar, batteries

The Elixir Group plans to install a solar power plant, a wind farm, a battery storage facility, and start using waste for the production of steam, within its EUR 300 million investment plan, according to Matthias Predojević, Vice President for Corporate Development at Elixir Group.

The new investments will help push forward the decarbonization process in Elixir Group, which started several years ago, Matthias Predojević said.

He was one of the speakers on the panel titled ‘Decarbonizing industry and business in response to Green Agenda and carbon pricing’ at Belgrade Energy Forum. This year, BEF 2024 gathered a total of 500 participants from 30 countries.

Predojević said Elixir is the leader in the chemical industry in Southeast Europe. The company operates in Serbia in two locations – Elixir Prahovo and Elixir Zorka Šabac. In total, it produces one million tons of mineral fertilizers and phosphoric acid. Its facility in Prahovo is one of the six factories in Europe that make phosphoric acid.

Elixir will install its own batteries

“We are currently in an investment cycle of EUR 300 million, which is named Prahovo 2027 and includes four greenfield investments,” Predojević said.

The firm intends to invest in a new phosphoric acid plant, in the production of crystalline fertilizers, in the generation of steam from non-recycled waste, and in wind and solar electricity production and energy storage.

Investing in energy should provide the company with energy, but also the possibility to balance its power generation, and prepare for the period after 2026, when the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is kicking off.

“All these investments will also create jobs, about 200 of them, with many positions for engineers,” Elixir’s top official announced.

Elixir already reports CO2 emissions

At the panel on the decarbonization of the industry, Predojević said that the production of mineral fertilizers is another sector that would undergo major changes when the EU starts charging the CBAM carbon border tax.

Elixir started preparing for the changes a few years ago and it regularly reports on CO2 emissions. One of the reasons is that its partners from the EU need the data for their own calculations.

Predojević pointed out that the company is planning to build an incinerator for industrial waste. Elixir currently exports such material to Austria, Switzerland and Germany, because there are no suitable treatment facilities in Serbia.