Twenty underdeveloped municipalities in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and another 20 in the Republic of Srpska which dispose of wood waste will be included in cogeneration projects, said Foreign Investments Promotion Agency (FIPA) of BiH. Director Gordan Milinić spoke to Zdravko Aćimović, who heads Alfa Invest – partner of Pyrox from Turin for Southeastern Europe, about planned investments of EUR 150 million.

The Italian partners have their own technology for the production of electricity and thermal energy on the basis of solid biomass to heat homes, greenhouses and other facilities. Installing and launching a plant would employ 25 workers and, according to the business plan, each municipality in the two entities of BiH would have annual revenue of EUR 1 million.

In addition to the investor’s funds, the project is supported by UniCredit Bank of Italy and an investment fund from Ireland. Municipalities would participate in financing of the investment in the amount of 10% to 15%. Considering the projects are for renewable energy, there is additional possibility to withdraw finance from the European funds for this purpose.

In mid-July FIPA will coordinate a meeting between investors and mayors and heads of commercial departments of 40 municipalities to present conditions, ways of implementation and obligations of parties.