The largest wind farm in Serbia Cibuk 1, consisting of 57 wind turbines with combined installed capacity of 158 MW, was officially commissioned on 11 October.
The project is developed by local company Vetroelektrane Balkana, wholly-owned subsidiary of Tesla Wind, a joint venture in which UAE-based Masdar has 60 % stake, Finnish Taaleri Group has 30 % stake, while German development financial institution DEG holds 10 % stake. The wind farm will produce up to 457 GWh of electricity per year, enough to cover the needs of some 113,000 households and prevent CO2 emissions in the amount of 370,000 tons per year. In total, project’s cost amounted to some 300 million euros.
In October 2017, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) announced that, along with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), it has signed a loan agreement worth 215 million euros for the construction of Cibuk 1 wind farm in Serbia with local company Vetroelektrane Balkana.
Last month, Serbia commissioned its first large-scale wind farms – 69 MW Kosava 1 developed by MK Fintel Wind and 104.5 MW Kovacica developed by Israeli company Enlight Renewable Energy.
Thus, Serbia increased its wind power installed capacity from practically zero (9.9 MW Kula and 6.6 MW La Piccolina) to over 300 MW in just two months.