Gascom Balkan to finish construction of solar plant near Kursumlija by end-2012 - Italians to invest EUR 36 million in renewable energy sources in Serbia

Gascom Renew's projects are a proof that foreign investors do not give up their investments in Serbia, particularly those in renewable energy sources. This Italian company, which has been operating in our country since April 2012 under the name of Gascom Balkan, has started the construction of a solar power plant near Kursumlija and now announces investments in another four similar plants across Serbia, as well as investments in biomass power plants.

- Our company is present in Serbia as an investor in various projects related to renewable sources of energy. We are now focused on investments in power plants using solar energy and biomass as fuel. Construction works are currently underway on a 2 MW solar power plant in Matarovo near Kursumlija – Ermanno Friso, Gascom's project manager in charge of projects in Serbia, says in a talk with eKapija.

This investment is worth about EUR 5 million, and the solar plant will span 400 hectares and generate 2.5m kWh of electricity per year.

- The energy generated in this way will be sent to Serbia's power grid, and we expect to finish the construction in one or two months - our interlocutor points out.

Friso announces that the Italian company plans to invest in solar power plants in other places in Serbia as well.

- The plan is to build a 10 MW solar power plant on the territory of Svrljig, in which we are going to invest about EUR 13 million. We have defined an agreement with the municipality for the use of land, and we are now seeking energy permits from the Ministry. Gascom Balkan intends to invest in the construction of small solar power plants, with the capacity of 1 MW, at Zlatibor, in Vranje, Sjenica, Merosina and other places in Serbia. We now negotiate with municipalities and assess the feasibility of these projects and the time it takes to implement them.

The Italian company in our country also invests in power plants using biomass as fuel, the first of which will be situated in Sremska Mitrovica.

- We are negotiating the construction of a biomass power plant with the municipality and electrical power distributors. We also work with the municipality on the construction of a biomass storage facility for that power plant. The project is quite complex because our primary goal is to make that place capable of supplying the power plant with biomass over the next 20 years. It is very important to us that biomass be supplied by agricultural manufacturers – our interlocutor explains and adds that the starting date of construction will be determined as soon as the project is completely defined.

The power plant in Sremska Mitrovica will have the capacity of 5 MW, and the Italian investor will invest about EUR 18 million in it.

Although Gascom Renew invests in wind farms and hydroelectric power stations, people at this company explain to our web portal that they have no concrete projects in the pipeline for Serbia in these segments of renewable energy sources, adding that they are now considering the business climate.

- We are asking about the possibility of investing in wind farms in Serbia, but we have no plans to make such investment for now. There are many permits issued, but not even one wind farm project has been implemented to date. We will postpone our investment in wind energy projects until we find out where the problems lie. Also, we are considering the construction of hydroelectric power stations and small hydroelectric power plants - says Friso.

Our interlocutor assesses that the situation in Serbia's energy sector in 2013 will be similar to the situation in this sector this year.

- What is for sure is that we will continue to invest in Serbia in 2013. If feed-in tariffs remain the same next year, we will be very satisfied.

The company Gascom Balkan presented sustainable energy projects at the International Energy Fair in Belgrade, which was held between October 10th and 12th.

Gascom Renew

The Gascom Group is an energy group engaged in three main fields - trade in natural gas and electrical energy; development, construction and sale of sustainable power plants; production and sale of electricity from renewable sources of energy.

Few years ago Gascom Renew also started investing in solar power plants and building them on the ground and rooftops. The company has so far completed two 1 MW plants in Lecce, three 1 MW plants in Brindisi, and two 3.5 MW plants in the vicinity of Rome.

Gascom invests in a biomass power plant in the town of Polina, builds a hydroelectric power plant in Ecuador and plans to build a 30 MW wind farm in Sicily.

Suzana Obradovic