Applications & Installations

Albanian utility set to move forward with 12.9 MW floating PV project

Korporata Elektroenergjetike Shqiptare began development of the €13.9 million facility in December 2018. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is considering lending €9.5 million to a project which it is said would help reduce the electric company’s reliance on hydro revenues.
Emiliano Bellini
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Emiliano Bellini
The Drin River hosts three hydropower plants operated by KESH. (This image was cropped by pv magazine to fit with its website layout requirements). | Image: tarosys/Wikimedia Commons

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is considering lending €9.5 million to state-owned Albanian utility Korporata Elektroenergjetike Shqiptare (KESH) for the construction of a 12.9 MW floating PV plant at a reservoir of the Drin River near Vau i Dejës, in Shkodër County, northwestern Albania.

“The project will strengthen KESH’s operational and financial performance through reduced reliance on hydro revenues and due to the floating technology’s positive impact on the water levels of the existing reservoir,” the lender said in a document on its website.

The €13.9 million plant has been planned since December 2018 and would be the largest floating project in the Western Balkans. It is intended the power generated would be sold on the local spot market.

Environmental impact

“Environmental and social issues associated with the project are anticipated to be localized, readily assessed and mitigated, based on an environmental and social due diligence [study],” stated the EBRD.

The plant would be built on a reservoir at the the 260 MW Vau i Dejës Hydroelectric Power Station owned by KESH. The utility, which runs three hydropower plants with a combined generation capacity of 1.3 GW at the Drin River Cascade, operates around 80% of the nation’s generation capacity.

Norwegian renewables company Statkraft, and compatriot floating PV specialist Ocean Sun, are developing a €2 million, 2 MW floating solar project at the former’s 72 MW hydropower plant in Albania’s Elbasan region.

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