The international tender for the construction, maintenance and operation of the photovoltaic park in Karavasta area, launched on January 20, 2020, was finalized today as the winning company was announced, clearing the way to a major investment for the national economy and the future of the country’s energy sector. This solar power generation investment will have direct impact on enhancing energy security and diversifying energy sources. Karavasta Photovoltaic Park is expected to be the largest solar park in the Balkans, a foreign direct investment worth over 100 million euros by the French renewable company VOLTALIA, which was announced as the winner of the international tender in a process held in consultation and with the assistance of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
“We have launched a process and today we taken a major step in the energy diversification process, creation of the alternative energy sources, the solar power energy in this case. Karavasta Park will be the biggest solar energy park in the Balkans and it will have a power generation capacity of 140 megawatt,” Infrastructure and Energy Minister Belinda Balluku said.
Attending the finalization of the international tender, PM Rama said in his remarks:
Perhaps the completely unexpected low price also justifies all the hermetic closure of the bid and I am very pleased that following a relatively not short period of time, we succeeded in finalizing this process, taking also into consideration of a period that interfered in between, which, due to the epidemic, caused suspensions and a series of delays to the process delays, including the competition that was already announced. I am also pleased that we are able to concretely see the finalization of a huge effort, on the one hand, to open a new page in the history of our energy system, including in a very significant way a significant volume, the first of its kind, the solar energy in the system and, on the other hand, this is not merely about the size and value of the investment worth over 100 million euros, but about the fact that the investment is being launched by a leading international company and the fact that a major economic stakeholder from France enters the Albanian economy. All these combined make this day a very positive one for Albania, the government and progress of our energy system.
We are aware that this is a time when diversification of the energy resources is increasingly required in a world that consumes 1100 barrels of oil and 220 tons of coal every second. We are also pretty aware that all these exhaustible energy resources, just like we also know – we have learned this too – it is universally known that such a level of consumption of the existing resources, which might not sound colossal to some, the needs for energy in the world we live will triple by 2050 and of course being a blessed country with 95% renewable energy resources, like no other country in Europe, also thanks to the huge water reserves and a hydropower potential, we are fully aware that solar energy is the missing component in power generation and incredible potential for us to ensure the country’s sustainable development and Albania should urgently diversify and invest precisely in the solar power, which can meet 100 times the needs of the globe today.
Most parts of Albania have 300 days of sunshine a year or the average amount of sunshine for Albania is 2400 hours of sunshine per year, whereas the Western Lowlands, including the Karavasta Lagoon and Myzeqe area, where the photovoltaic plant will be built, have 2700 hours of sunshine a year. It is an ideal place and each hectare of the land there can generate around a quarter of a million euros a year being used for energy production.
In terms of its size, this is the largest park in the region, but, on the other hand, I would like to add this is not the end, but the beginning of a process, where we expect to boost generation capacities and this is a fantastic omen, because it all begins with a stakeholder that enjoys prestige and world-wide known capacities, rendering high credibility to this part of the system.
Nearly 30 companies and consortia were interested and filed requests for the tender documents and this is another sign of the country’s ample potential and attractive power in this sector and, in at the same time, I am happy to acknowledge that despite the difficulties we encountered as it is always the case when it comes to processes that cannot be planned in advance and cannot be fully and 100% executed as planned, after a failed initial attempt, yet I can openly state the whole process was worth it also due to the fact that the Minister successfully managed to involve the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in the process, bringing both its expertise and its carefully oversight over the criteria of the entire tender process, ensuring full transparency and full integrity of the process in the eyes of all international stakeholders.
I am convinced this is a good example and evidence to our commitment and readiness to boost standards, enhance transparency, increase the quality of the bids, given the fact that nobody can complain about any element in this case and nobody can claim over a potential shadowy process.
And certainly, the result cements the entire process. I am convinced this all happened to everyone’s surprise, because, in the best case scenario, our expectations were actually way too far from this result. It is a fantastic price, beyond any prediction, which, in my view, should be seen as a long-term commitment of the company, a well-thought identification of the potential to further expand in this space, which involves many elements favouring the solar energy and, of course, also in an indisputable proof of our long and tireless perseverance and determination not to allow leniency in such processes. Of course, this won’t end here. Together with the Deputy Prime Minister, who is also a lawmaker representing this area and who has been long insisting – and you of course know the way he has persisted and persevered to build the park in this area, together with the Mayor, who has provided entire needed support to this process, contributing to all necessary elements regarding data collection and the procedures within the working team, together with the Minister, and, certainly I wish together with the investor and senior officials of the French state, we will hopefully be here at the construction site after the summer months, in the fall and I am not setting a date because this experience has taught us that there is always something that for objective reasons could go not as planned.
On the other hand, we will soon announce another process that has been explored yet delayed for more decades than this 30-year period; that is designing and construction of Skavica hydropower plant.
Construction of Skavica hydropower plant has been the historic objective of all Albanian governments, including those before the’90s. It is a strategically, absolutely necessary, yet difficult and complex project. Therefore, the governments have planned it, but they all have failed to push the project forward and complete it. Over all these years we have been trying to find the right stakeholders, who would invest in this project, but we have decided to develop and construct entire project on state budget funds. Skavica hydropower plant will be constructed 100% by the state. It will be a difficult and complex project, but which will transform the entire energy system and will optimize the Drin River cascade because Skavica is the missing element in the original project on the Drin cascade and it will the last catchment of abundant water, preventing at the same time the floods triggered because of the water discharges, causing damages and incurring a dear cost to the state budget to compensate and assist people recover again.
In addition to Skavica hydropower plant, a series of smaller projects than the ongoing ones in terms of their size will follow and we hope and wish that the preparatory stage for a wind power plant will be finalized soon as intense work is already underway, but we have yet to reach to the point with us being fully convinced that the process will be finalized and the Ministry, together with the consultants, is exploring a very attractive and real opportunity for a major foreign investment in a wind power project.
I believe this is a beautiful and commemorative day for us. I don’t know whether it would make the headlines, yet it is great news. Good news is usually neither reported or if so it is always reported at the end of the news stories of the day, but beyond this, what matters most is that this investment will start materializing and the construction site will open soon in Karavasta, where there have always been uncultivated saline soils and the park will become a reality.
Thank you very much to everyone who made this moment possible! Thank you very much Erion, who has been the project’s staunch promoter! Thank you Infrastructure Minister and her team! Thank you very much EBRD for providing unreserved assistance to make sure that the process absolutely meets the internationally recognized standards and a big thank to the French investors for the trust they have shown in Albania, which, I hope, has shown them enough evidence, but also the reason so that once they go to the palaces of power in Paris to show that Albania indeed is not what it often seems, especially ahead of the elections in France!
