The new year will be the deadline when Ministry of Energy to come up with a price list of incentives or (feed-in) tariff for the production of energy from renewable sources.
After the recent announcement of the Minister Zorana Mihajlovic that these tariffs will be reviewed taking into account their height, as well as the economic crisis in which we found ourselves, some investors have announced the withdrawal from the Serbian market.
Mark Crandall, president of “Continental Wind Partners” (CWP), said that there is a possibility that the company withdraws from the construction of a wind farm in Kovin, if the feed-in tariffs for the purchase of electricity get reduced. He explained that this could happen if foreign investment banks estimate that the project is not viable and refuse to give loans.
– It’s not about whether CWP decides to stay or to give up. Our company will invest 30 percent of the value of the project in the form of equity, which is about 90 million in the construction of this wind farm. For the remaining 70 percent, or about 210 million, we’ll take loans from international banks – specified Crandall.
Maja Turkovic, an expert in renewable energy, says that is very risky to change the investment conditions not only for projects that are currently announced, but also for those that are at an advanced stage.
– No investor wants to leave the country, but the question is whether the banks would follow the projects in these changed conditions. If we would, for example, reduce feed-in tariffs below 9.5 eurocents, we would not have wind farms. I think that these tariffs will not be lowered because the minister knows that we need new investments – Turkovic said and added that only for obtaining a building permit for the construction of a wind farm of 100 MW an investor spends four million Euros.
Source Serbia Energy Magazine
