Slovenia’s Riko to build EUR 10 million solar power plant in Ukraine

Slovenian engineering company Riko will build a 10.6 MW solar power plant near Zhytomyr in northern Ukraine, local media reported. The company won a tender for the EUR 10 million project.

The contract on the construction of the solar power plant was signed by Zhytomyr Mayor Serhiy Sukhomlin and Riko CEO Janez Škrabec.

The Slovenian embassy in Ukraine provided a EUR 3 million grant, while additional EUR 7 million was secured through loans by Ukrainian state-owned bank Ukrgasbank. The city will obtain guarantees for the financial part of the deal.

The first 6.4 MW will be installed by March and the remaining 4.3 MW by the end of July 2019, said Andrej Podbevsek, director of Riko in Ukraine, Kyiv Post reported.

The partner of the Slovenian company in this business endeavor is municipal enterprise Zhytomyr’s Investment Center. The plant will cover an area of 18 hectares and will secure EUR 1.85 million annually in revenues for Zhytomyr’s Investment Center. City officials also welcomed the reduction of carbon emissions as one of the project benefits.

The solar power plant is Riko’s second project in Zhytomyr. Slovenian engineering company Riko won the World Banks’s tender for the drinking water treatment station. The construction of the EUR 12 million facility is expected to be completed in 2020.