Albanian government chooses a group led by India Power Company Ltd., to build the Adriatic Countrys first solar power station. This project costs around 70 million Euros ($79.34 million) with a capacity of 100 MW, as stated by the Energy Ministry on Nov10 Saturday.
The offer by India Power, Mining Resource FZE based in United Arab Emirates and the Hong Kong-based Midami Ltd., was the best out of three combinations of technical and Financial Credibility, price and additional capacity, it added.
The socialist government of Prime Minister Edi Rama is willing to install 120 MW of solar and 70 MW of wind power capacity by 2020. As more than 90 percent of Albanias power is been produced by rivers and the newly built power plant at Beset does not work due to cooling problem.
As the solar plant will be set up in 18 months, the government is to sell the power to local distributor at 59.9 Euro per MW, for duration of 15 years out of its 50 first MW. Whereas the energy from the other 50 MW will be sold at market prices.
The ministry called the auction as a success because it secures one of the lowest energy prices in the region. The price is lower than the 663 EURO per MW in Greece and Turkey and also below the average import price it said.
Now Albania and the group being led by India Power will sign the contract. If its finalized, it would be the first major investment by Asian Company to Albania, since two Chinese companies bought its crude extraction firm and an airport concession from their Canadian and German owners almost two years ago.
The Ministry said that the outcome of the solar plant will encourage having similar auctions in other parts of sun-kissed country on the shore of the Adriatic Sea.