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Representatives of energy ministries, electricity distribution system operators and regulatory bodies as well as international experts attended a field trip and presentations in Albania organized within the project Green Agenda: Decarbonisation of the Electricity Sector in the Western Balkans. It is implemented by GIZ, which organized a visit to Karavasta, the biggest photovoltaic plant in the region, and an innovative agrisolar facility.
The idea is that decision makers and technical stakeholders work together and learn from each other.
The production of electricity in the Western Balkans mostly relies on coal plants. Prevalently several decades old, they are becoming less and less reliable. A joint and coordinated approach to the security of energy supply, power market reform and decarbonization is therefore urgent.
The Western Balkans have pledged to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, like the European Union. But the uncompetitiveness of coal power, which also harms health and the environment, is likely to push the majority of the obsolete units into retirement within a decade.
Representatives of energy ministries, electricity distribution system operators and regulatory bodies as well as international experts attended a field trip and presentations in Albania organized within the project Green Agenda: Decarbonisation of the Electricity Sector in the Western Balkans. It is funded by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in cooperation with the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC).
The project is helping decision makers, regulators and electricity system operators work out solutions for replacing the solid fuel with renewables and integrate them into the grid. With the two-day program, the platform for knowledge exchange and strengthening of regional cooperation provided a snapshot of the development of solar power in the country.
Karavasta PV plant in Albania is forerunner for region’s new electricity system
The first gathering after the annual Regional Power Exchange event included a visit to two facilities that signify the achievements and progress in the photovoltaic realm in Albania.
The Karavasta solar power plant is the biggest in the Western Balkans with its 140 MW in peak capacity. It was built as a result of the country’s first successful renewable energy auction, held in 2020.
The Karavasta PV plant, commissioned in January, is the result of Albania’s first successful renewable energy auction
France-based Voltalia launched the facility’s testing phase a year ago and commissioned it at the end of January. The site is in Albania’s west, in Fier county, which has attracted utility-scale solar projects with the most electricity generation capacity by far in the entire country.
The company’s engineers provided insight to the forty visiting energy sector professionals into the timeline of the endeavor and presented the technical details.
Karavasta generates an estimated 265 GWh per year. It features 235,000 bifacial solar panels on 3,800 trackers following the sun. The 120 MW grid connection goes through a 30/220 kV substation.
New home for endemic frog sets environmental bar higher for renewable energy projects in Western Balkans
The site is next to the Karavasta lagoon, the heart of the Divjakë-Karavasta National Park.
Being in a salty area, just below sea level, the solar power plant didn’t affect agriculture. But during the works, Voltalia identified a habitat of the Albanian water frog. As compensation for intruding, the company has set up a water pond of one hectare for the endemic species.
A variety of special measures also safeguard snakes and other native wildlife.
The Karavasta PV plant investment amounted to EUR 88.2 million. Among the challenges, our hosts pointed to plots with unknown owners, including the land for the power line. Voltalia solved the issue by opening an escrow account for its payments where they will be able to access their compensation.
The company has won the following auction as well, in 2021, for the Spitalle solar power project. The location near Durrës is designated for 100 MW in peak capacity. Voltalia intends to apply an east-west hut-shaped solar panel layout.
Agrivoltaics pioneer contributed to development of country’s legal framework for renewables
The GIZ bunch also went to the nearby village of Plug in Lushnja district to AEE’s 2.5 MW agrisolar plant, with dwarf olive trees.
It was, in fact, the biggest photovoltaic plant in the country when it came online in 2019, said Besnik Likollari, the company’s founder and administrator. He designed the facility himself and the firm built almost everything at the spot.
Starting from his previous project, a small solar power unit that was also the largest at the time in Albania, the solar power pioneer participated in creating regulations and legislation for the technology and the electricity sector.
The agrisolar plant in Plug was the largest in the country when it was completed in 2019
“It was a long journey. We made everything here inside except the busbars. They were produced in a local factory from scrap car wheels. A part of the power plant is on the building here, for which we made the roof slated to best fit PV panels,” Likollari stressed.
The busbars are placed above the ground, across the structures holding the modules. Likollari said it was to avoid the danger from flooding – the Plug area is also below sea level.
The facility has three inverters of 680 kW each. Likollari said a backtracking feature was included. Namely, when the sun is low, the trackers move the arrays to a more horizontal position so that they don’t throw shade on one another.
Floating solar power plants to help Albania become net electricity exporter
Albania is specific in the Western Balkans for having no coal power plants and producing almost all its electricity in hydroelectric systems, which makes it vulnerable to droughts.
The government is working on diversification based on renewables, aiming to make the country a net electricity exporter by the end of the decade. Albania also hosts the first floating solar power plant in the region. It is on a reservoir of a hydropower plant operated by Statkraft. State-owned power utility KESH is preparing to build another one, with an impressive 13 MW in peak capacity.
Officials present electricity decarbonization progress at Tirana Energy Forum
The next day after the field trip, participants gathered at the Tirana Energy Forum. Representatives of ministries, regulatory institutions and distribution system operators presented their countries’ electricity systems and markets, with a focus on solar power and incentives.
GIZ’s Energy Advisor for Albania Rodon Miraj, responsible for the project, said the idea for the meetings and workshops is for the participating partners to work with each other and learn from each other.
“We do not fight against coal and oil, because you can not do that, but we fight to provide regulatory and technical solutions to partners: to ministries, DSOs, TSOs and regulators so they can integrate renewables more easily into the grid and hopefully push out carbon-intensive ways of producing electricity,” he told the audience.
Miraj noted that the project is also cooperating with the civil society. One of the partners is energypedia, where all efforts and deliverables are posted for all partners to see what the others are working on, he asserted.
North Macedonia eclipses rest of Western Balkans with solar power deployment
Bledar Aliaj from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, where he heads the department for policy and strategy development, revealed that prosumers in Albania have a total capacity of more than 160 MW.
The only country in the Western Balkans with a higher score in the segment is North Macedonia. Faton Ambari, member of the Energy and Water Services Regulatory Commission (ERC or RKE), said there are 1,258 legal entities in the category, with an overall 210 MW. As of recently, there were 620 households with a prosumer status, operating 3.5 MW in total.
Solar power capacity in North Macedonia is nearing 800 MW
North Macedonia is also the fastest in the region in solar power expansion. The country is nearing 800 MW, data from Ambari’s presentation showed. It is roughly half of all PV capacity in the Western Balkans! Almost all new power generating units are photovoltaic systems.
The event included a presentation by energy expert Julien Jomaux on solar power’s so-called cannibalization effect on electricity prices.
The project Green Agenda: Decarbonisation of the Electricity Sector in the Western Balkans, which lasts for one more year, is promoting technological solutions for an environmentally and climate-friendly energy transition. The beneficiaries are assisted in legislative work and regulations improvement, alongside a component covering vocational education and training for green jobs. |
