Dongfang Electric Corp. signed a contract for the construction of Bile?a solar power plant project for EFT. The Chinese company built the Stanari coal-fired power plant for the same investor in 2016.

Almost two years after the initiative of London-based EFT International Investments Holding was formally revealed, EFT SE Bile?a picked Dongfang Electric Corp. for engineering, procurement and construction of its Bile?a solar power plant in the Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

EFT Group said after signing the contract that works are scheduled to start by the end of June and that the facility should come online by mid-2023. The Bile?a photovoltaic unit will have a peak capacity of 60 MW and its annual output is estimated at 100 GWh, the company added.

The project is valued at EUR 53.1 million

The 50-year concession agreement was signed in July of last year and EFT paid a one-off fee of EUR 360,000. The project was earlier valued at EUR 53.1 million, though EFT estimates it at EUR 43.5 million on its website. EFT will pay EUR 2.8 per MWh of production and 95% of the funds will go to the municipality.

Bile?a is a town in the far south of the country in the Herzegovina region, near the border with Montenegro. Of note, a hydropower plant project of the same name is under development in the area. There are three other advanced utility-scale solar projects in Herzegovina.

Dongfang is a state-owned company from China, headquartered in Chengdu. It built the 300 MW Stanari coal-fired thermal power plant for EFT in 2016.

There are three other advanced utility-scale solar projects in the Herzegovina region

The principal operating unit of EFT International Investments Holding is Energy Financing Team AG, incorporated in Switzerland. Holding company EFT Investments is in Cyprus and the businesses in BiH are formally under EFT (Holdings) from Denmark. Its electricity trading firm Energy Financing Team is also based in Bile?a.

EFT, controlled by businessman Vuk Hamovi?, is also planning to build a solar power plant in North Macedonia, where it got a strategic investment status for its 80 MW project.