TIRANA, May 27 – French renewable energy company Voltalia, was announced as the winner of the tender to build a 140 Megawatt photovoltaic park in Karavasta, located in the southern region of Albania.
Voltalia ultimately turned out to meet all the technical criteria among five final bidders of the tender which included companies from China, Germany and India. Although the tender was initially launched in January, it was postponed twice until May 8, when the tender was launched online.
Based on the 30-year contract, half of the energy amount will be sold in the free market, while the other 70 megawatts will have to be sold to the Albanian energy distribution operator, OSSHE, for a period of 15 years. The maximum price set by the authorities was 55 euros per megawatt hour, while the French company offered to pay 24.89 euros per megawatt hour instead, or 40 percent less of the initial price. Its investment in the construction of the photovoltaic park exceeds 100 million euros.
For Mr. Rama, investing in the construction of Karavasta Park “is not only important in value, but also in the fact that it will be done by a company with great international prestige and on the other hand, by entering the Albanian economy of an actor of important economic coming from France ”.
In 2018, Voltalia was left out of the competition for the construction of another photovoltaic park, that of Akërnia in Vlora, which was entrusted to an Indian consortium. However, the construction of the park never began and no explanation was given on why the project failed.
