Kostolac Wind Farm to start operating by year’s end

The Kostolac Wind Farm is set to be put into trial operation by the end of the year, the Ministry of Mining and Energy announced. All 20 wind turbines have been erected at the first wind farm of the Serbian Electric Power Company (Elektroprivreda Srbije), which will produce 187 million kilowatt-hours per year, said State Secretary at the ministry Sonja Vlahovic, who toured the wind farm with the Parliamentary State Secretary of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Johann Saathoff.

She added that that capacity was sufficient to supply green electricity to around 30,000 households.

– With it, we are not only providing an additional 66 megawatts of green electricity, but we are also demonstrating our ambition to rely more on domestic renewable energy sources in the future. The power plant is expected to be put into trial operation by the end of the year – Vlahovic emphasized.

The project’s financing was secured through an arrangement with the German development bank KfW in the amount of EUR 110 million, with an additional EUR 30 million from the European Union’s Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF), as well as EPS’s own funds, she said.

Saathoff noted that the current year also marked 25 years of cooperation between the two countries, “with the clear goal of Serbia’s accession to the European Union.”

– The wind farm here in Kostolac is a symbol of this long-standing cooperation, and is jointly financed by Germany through KfW, the European Union’s Western Balkans Investment Framework and EPS – he pointed out.

Elektroprivreda Srbije ad Beograd

Ministarstvo rudarstva i energetike Republike Srbije

KfW kancelarija Beograd

Kostolac Wind Farm

Elektroprivreda Srbije ad Beograd

Ministry of Mining and Energy

KfW

Sonja Vlahović

Johann Ssathoff