Serbian EPS gets green light to build 66-MW wind farm

State-owned EPS plans to increase its gross electricity output by 4 percent to 40 terrawatt hours this year and produce 38 million tonnes of coal, up 1.5 percent from 2018, it said.

Serbia, which produces 70 percent of its energy from coal and the rest from hydropower, aims to secure 27 percent of its energy consumption from renewables by 2020. Its energy minister had said it would have 500 MW of installed wind capacity by 2020.
Serbian power utility EPS said on Thursday it had received a regulatory green light to build a 66-megawatt (MW) wind farm in the eastern town of Kostolac, the first wind capacity in its energy portfolio.

“We expect construction to start in the third quarter of 2019,” an EPS statement quoted managing director Milorad Grcic as saying.
Last year, German state-owned development bank KfW signed an 80 million euro ($91 million) loan deal with EPS to help complete the project, whose value was put at 97 million euros.