The Korlat solar power plant in Croatia will be constructed by Chinese companies SDEPCI and Norinco International. Its nameplate capacity would be 99 MW, with a grid connection of 75 MW.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said it awarded the contract for the installation of the Korlat photovoltaic project to the consortium of Shandong Electric Power Engineering Consulting Institute Corporation (SDEPCI) and Norinco International Cooperation.
Croatian state-owned power utility Hrvatska Elektroprivreda (HEP) signed loan agreements in October with the EBRD and the European Investment Bank (EIB) on financing the construction of the facility.
The contract is worth almost EUR 60 million
The amount is EUR 62 million, of which the EBRD’s loan is EUR 31.62 million and the EIB approved EUR 30.38 million. The package is 80% covered by a state guarantee.
The EBRD now said the contract with the consortium is worth EUR 59.9 million.
It is a turnkey, EPC contract – for engineering, procurement and construction, together with commissioning and testing of the Korlat PV facility and including grid connection infrastructure and an ancillary building. The deal also covers operation and maintenance for two years, according to the EBRD’s award notice.
Norinco built the largest wind farm in Croatia
The contract’s scheduled completion date is April 2028, the bank said.
Norinco is already present in Croatia, where it built the largest wind farm, Senj, with a capacity of 56 MW. It is the most significant Chinese investment in Croatia after the bridge to the Pelješac peninsula.
Last year, the company took over a solar project in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A month ago Norinco signed a deal with Arctech on the purchase of its equipment for the future photovoltaic plant.
The first renewable hybrid energy park in Croatia
The expected annual generation of the SE Korlat unit is 165 GWh, sufficient to supply around 50,000 households.
The PV facility would be located near the village of Korlat, about seven kilometers from the town of Benkovac in southwest Croatia. The company built its first wind farm there.
HEP plans to integrate the two facilities into a renewable hybrid energy park, the first of its kind in the country.
Wind farm Korlat, with a capacity of 58 MW, became operational in 2021. It was the first without feed-in tariffs in Croatia.
