TIRANA, March 23 – With the country’s domestic electricity generation wholly reliant on hydropower plants and rainfall, the Albanian government has awarded a new 25-year licence to an Albanian company to build a wind farm after several similar projects approved in the past decade have failed to produce the first wind energy in the country. The new plant would diversify domestic electricity generation into pure renewable energy following environmental concerns over new hydropower plant permits putting at risk biodiversity and tourism in some of the country’s wild rivers which are set to be dammed up.
Albanian-owned Alb-Building company has been awarded a 25-year licence by Energy Minister Damian Gjiknuri under an unsolicited bid to build a small wind farm in Tepelena, southern Albania, at a 4.5 hectare area, according to an announcement published on the Official Gazette.
The 12 MW plant is a €13 million investment with six wind towers of up to 92 meters high that is expected to produce about 26,000 MWh/a year, says the energy ministry.
The company, which is expected to complete the project in seven months once it gets its construction permit, will have to pay an annual fee equal to 2 percent of the electricity it produces.
Back in mid-2015, an Italian company was also awarded a licence to build a 36 MW wind farm expected to produce 104,400 MWh/year with German technology employing 12 towers in the Fushe-Kuqe -Laৠarea, northern Albania. The €54 million investment initially expected to be completed in eight months has not been made operational yet and its fate remains unknown the same to several previous wind energy projects.
Experts say the main issue wind energy investors face in Albania is lack of long-term measurement of wind speed and having to carry out the tests on their own which considerably delays investment projects, often leading to their abandonment.
With an average of 2.400 hours of sunshine a year, the country is estimated to have annual potential solar radiation of 1,500 kWh/m2.
“Albania has untapped wind power potential, in particular along the Adriatic coast but does not have any wind power production facility yet. A number of areas with high wind energy potential with the average annual wind speed of 6-8 m/s and energy density of 250-600 W/m2 have already been identified. At least, 20 potential wind farms can be constructed in these areas,” says the Albanian Investment Development Agency in a bulletin on renewable energy in Albania.
With domestic electricity generation currently wholly reliant on hydroelectricity, Albania has large untapped wind and solar energy potential that can be cost-competitive, UAE-based International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has unveiled in a recent South East Europe report.
Despite interest by several international companies, no wind or solar energy projects are currently being implemented in Albania where there is no comprehensive and supportive regulatory framework for the deployment of renewable energy sources other than hydropower yet, says the agency.
“Due to the very good solar resource and relatively satisfactory wind speeds (3.3-9.6 m/s), there is high, untapped potential for the deployment of solar PV (up to 1.9 GW) and wind (987-2 153 MW),” the same report says.
With few projects underway, the government’s target to generate 5 percent of total electricity from wind sources by 2020 seems difficult to be met.
