BELGRADE (Serbia), January 17 – German development finance institution DEG said on Wednesday it has acquired a 10% equity interest in Vetroelektrane Balkana (WEBG), the developer and future operator of the Cibuk I wind farm in Serbia.
The wind farm, due to be completed in 2019, will have a capacity of 158 MW and will be equipped with 57 GE turbines that will produce 470 GWh of electricity annually, making it the largest wind farm in Serbia, DEG said in a statement.
Cibuk I will be built by WEBG in Serbia’s northern province of Vojvodina and will produce enough electricity to supply 113,000 households with green energy, DEG said.
In November, Finnish-based Taaleri Group said it signed an agreement to acquire a 30% stake in Cibuk I wind farm. Taaleri will enter the company via an investment vehicle that pools funds from Taaleri Aurinkotuuli, a Taaleri Group managed investment fund, and Finnfund, a Finnish state-owned development financier, the company said back then.
Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar) holds a 60% stake in the capital of WEBG.
The loan-based financing for the construction of the wind farm was arranged by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
“A total of around 300 million euro ($367.1 million) is invested,” the statement reads.
In 2015, the EBRD said DEG was expected to become a shareholder in WEBG prior to the completion of the wind farm’s construction.
DEG is a subsidiary of German development bank KfW and has been operating in Serbia since more than 15 years, financing projects in the agriculture, infrastructure and financial sectors.
($ = 0.817247 euro)
Source: https://seenews.com/news/germanys-deg-acquires-10-stake-in-serbias-cibuk-i-wind-farm-598606