Ceremonial opening of "Čibuk 1" wind farm

President Vučić said at the ceremonial opening that the "Čibuk 1" wind farm is of tremendous significance for Serbia and that it will provide the electric power for 113.000 households i.e. 250.000 people, which equals the city of the size of Niš.

 

President Vučić emphasised that the wind farm is the first new, large and valuable facility in the energy sector opened in the last 30 years.

 

"This manifests how much Serbia goes forward, what it is capable of doing and what it was not able to do four, five, six years ago", said President Vučić.

 

He also pointed out that Serbia will have to get increasingly oriented towards green energy and that it will be doing so in the future.

 

 

President Vučić said he did not believe that the wind farm "Čibuk" will be looking so good and that it will be so appealing, and added that the 57 wind generators will be a kind of a picture postcard of southern Banat.

 

"This designates that we speak today about the great importance which this facility has for Serbia", stressed President Vučić.

 

President Vučić also added that two per cent of the profit will remain in the local self-government of Kovin and pointed out that there will be more money for roads and water supply pipelines, sewerage system and other infrastructure projects wherefore the people will live better.

 

 

Minister of Mining and Energy Aleksandar Antić said that this is one of the biggest facilities of this sort in Europe and undoubtedly in Serbia and the region and that the opening of a wind farm will contribute to the energy security and to the confidence regarding the power supply in Serbia.

 

The wind farm, as he explained, is not only a large contribution to the objective of Serbia set out to obtain 27 per cent of the overall energy consumption from renewable sources, but it also represents a significant supplementary source of energy production in Serbia.

 

With its 430 GWh of annual energy production, it will render almost 1.5 per cent of our annual energy production overall thus affecting to a high extent the entire energy security and security in supply.

 

In addition to the whole spectrum of important segments as parts of the overall state efforts in the fight against climate changes such as the fight for the environmental protection, this project also encompasses another series of accompanying elements which are important for Serbia, said Minister Antić.

 

 

 

A large transformer station of 400 kWh is accommodated by the wind farm which the investor was obliged to construct and put to the disposal and into the proprietorship of the company "Electric Power Network of Serbia", which will represent a strong energy potential for the entire region, the Minister said.

 

Antić thanked the investors and financial institutions which recognised Serbia as a safe and stable destination for such a powerful but also delicate project. He also thanked the President of Serbia for whom he said to have given the key contribution so that Serbia becomes an economically and politically stable country which can attract the investments like this.

 

The project is backed by the company "Vetroelektrane Balkana" and Abu Dhabi based company "Masdar", while the approximately 300 million Euros worth investment was supported by the International Financial Corporation (IFC), member of the World Bank Group and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.