In the presence of Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, 156 MW Senj wind farm, the largest such facility in the country, developed by Chinese Norinco, has officially entered trial operation.
Senj wind farm consists of a total of 39 wind turbines with power output of 4 MW each, last of which was build on 30 October. Initially, the project’s cost was estimated to around 180 million euros, however, according to Croatian media, the investment has reached up to 230 million euros. The construction of the wind farm has started in mid-2019. The first four wind turbines entered trial operation in mid-November.
PM Plenkovic said that one of Croatia’s main goals is to boost electricity production from renewable sources to 30 % next year, which will be achieved thanks to such projects and by this big investment Norinco provided to Croatia, which makes it one of the largest investors in Croatia’s green energy. With its expected annual production of 0.5 TWh, the wind farm will contribute 3.5 % of Croatia’s annual electricity output.
In late 2017, Chinese Norinco International Cooperation has bought a 76 % stake in Croatian company Energija Projekt for 32 million euros. With this investment, the Chinese investor has taken over the rights for construction and operation of a wind farm of installed power output of 156 MW near Senj with estimated annual electricity generation of 530 GWh. The wind farm should consist of 39 wind turbines with 4 MW power output each. Produced electricity will be sold directly on the market, which means that this will be the first major greenfield project in wind energy that will not receive incentives from the Government. In July 2018, Norinco obtained the building permit and it was initially expected that the wind farm would be built within two years.
