158 MW Čibuk 1, Serbia’s largest wind farm, officially starts operations

Photo: Masdar

Serbia’s largest wind farm, the 57-turbine Čibuk 1, has officially started operations today following a EUR 300 million investment. The wind farm with a maximum capacity of 158 MW generates power to supply 113,000 households and will displace 370,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.

Čibuk 1 is one of the wind farms whose output is financed under the feed-in tariff in Serbia. The power purchase agreement (PPA) for Čibuk 1 was signed in October 2016.

Čibuk 1 was developed by Vetroelektrane Balkana, a Serbian company wholly-owned by Tesla Wind, a joint venture between Masdar, the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, the Taaleri SolarWind I fund, managed by Finnish renewable energy infrastructure fund manager and developer Taaleri Energia, and the German development finance institution DEG – Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) recalled in a press release.

Mohamed Al Ramahi, CEO of Masdar, noted that Čibuk 1 is the largest utility-scale commercial wind project in the Western Balkans.

The inauguration was attended by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, Mining and Energy Minister Aleksandar Antić, UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, UAE Ambassador to Serbia Mubarak Saeed Al Dhaheri, and Mubadala Aerospace, Renewables & ICT CEO Khaled Al Qubaisi.

The EUR 300 million project was developed with financial support provided by the EBRD and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group. The EBRD arranged a EUR 107.7 million syndicated loan, of which EUR 55 million was syndicated to Erste Bank, the Green for Growth Fund (GGF), UniCredit, and Banca Intesa under an A/B loan structure. In parallel, the IFC provided EUR 107.7 million, the EBRD recalled.

GE Renewable Energy supplied wind turbines for the wind farm.