The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has provided a loan of about 9.1 million Euros for the development of a 12.9 MW floating solar project in Albania. The project will be located on the Vau i Dejes hydropower reservoir, which is under the management of by Korporata Elektroenergjitike Shqiptare (KESH), an Albanian state utility.
The project will help utilise the rich solar resource in Albania and will be the first floating solar plant of this size in Albania and the Western Balkans. The loan will be received through a special purpose vehicle established for the development of this project, which will be owned by KESH. The loan will also be structured as a project finance loan and will be provided on a commercial basis.
Earlier, there have been two other projects supported by the EBRD in Albania. These include the 140 MW Karavasta project and the 100 MW Spitalle project. For project preparation support, the EBRD also mobilised EUR 315,830. This includes support from the green economy project preparation and implementation framework financed by the Austrian government (the DRIVE Fund) and from the TaiwanBusiness-EBRD Technical Cooperation Fund. EBRD has been an important institutional investor in Albania having invested more than EUR 1.5 billion in loans for 110 projects in the country.
The state utility KESH owns and operates three large hydropower plants in Albania having a cumulative capacity of 1,350 MW, which makes up about 70 per cent of domestic power generation in Albania.