Concession contracts signed for 264 hydropower plants

TIRANA, May 27 – The Albanian government has signed 98 concession contracts to build 264 hydropower plants with a total installed power of 1055 MW during the 2007-2010 period, deputy Economy Minister has said.
“The expected investment value for the construction and rehabilitation of these contracts is 244.8 billion leks, (2.4 billion dollars) said deputy Economy and Energy Minister Leonard Beqiraj in a press conference.
Among the most important projects funded by strategic foreign investors are the construction of hydropower plants on the Cascade of Devoll River, an investment of 140 billion leks with a total installed power of 319 MW and average annual production of 985.2 million KWh.
The construction of the Ashta hydropower plant in the Drin River is another major project. The 20.6 billion lek project is expected to produce 230 million kWh annually, enough electricity to supply energy to 100,000 Albanian families.
Verbund, the Austrian company in charge of building the new Ashta hydropower plant, has finished the first stage of construction, which involved building the infrastructure to the site and obtaining all the necessary paperwork.
Meanwhile, construction works have also started for 30 hydropower plants, ten of which are expected to finish by this year.
The economy ministry says domestic and foreign investors are becoming more and more interested to build hydropower plants under concession contracts because of the clear and transparent procedures the law envisages for their implementation.
Government recently approved applications by six companies to build 11 small hydropower plants with an annual production of 160 million kwh, an investment of around 2 billion leks.
The ministry says that 12 companies, most of which Italian ones, have also expressed interest to build wind farms but only three of them have currently been granted preliminary authorisation.