Construction of 900 hydro power plants on the Balkans is planned in the coming eight years, whose operation will increase electricity production in this part of the world by approximately 56 percent. This was revealed by the recently presented data of the organization Bankwatch. Within its campaign “Save the Blue Heart of Europe”, this organization analyzed plans of Balkan countries for the sales of concessions on rivers for the construction of small, medium and large hydro power plants.
Namely, the Bosna River will be the largest construction site for hydro power plants in the ownership of the country. Through its enterprise Elektroprivreda BiH, the FB&H Government intends to build 25 hydro power plants of average power between 10 and 50 megawatts, which categorizes one hydro power plant as a medium power plant. In the coming years, in addition to the already existing two hydro power plants (Zvornik 1 and Bajina Bašta), the Drina River will get another six electrical energy facilities, mostly of power above 50 megawatts.
Especially interesting are the plans and sales of concession on Una, Vrbas and the upper flow of Neretva, which administratively belongs to the B&H entity Republika Srpska. According to the plans, construction of one large hydro power plant in the Municipality of Kalinovik is planned for now. Apart from Ulog hydro power plant on the Neretva River, whose construction as already started, three larger hydro power plants are to be built on Neretva, which will increase the number of large electrical energy facilities on this river to eight.
Similar situation is with the Una River, where at least five hydro power plants will be built in the coming years. However, it seems that the Vrbas River is the most affected. That river might get an entirely new look. The RS authorities gave concessions for around twenty hydro power plants on this river. In total, 165 hydro power plants should be built in B&H.
What is interesting is that, besides the three Elektroprivreda enterprises, investors mostly come from abroad. Concessions in the RS were given to following companies: Reservoir Capital Corp Canada, Comsar Energy Hidro owned by the Russian tycoon Rashid Sardarov, Moccaferri Industrial Group Italy, Premar Services with headquarters in the Swiss city of Zug and which has earlier conducted business on the market of B&H as a supplier of expensive tippers and other equipment for mines in the FB&H. in the larger B&H entity, the business was also entrusted to the Austrian company Wiener Energie, mostly on the confluents to the Bosna River in the Municipality of Zavidovići.
(Source: faktor.ba)
