Kosovo to hold first wind tender next year
Kosovo to hold first wind tender next year | Windpower Monthly
Kosovo has announced its intention to launch the country’s first wind auction, for 150MW, by mid-2024.
The country's Ministry of Economy said it will seek the assistance of international partners, including USAID, to ensure the auction’s success. Through “a competitive, open and transparent process,” the goal would be to “catalyse” financing from private developers, augmenting government co-financing.
If achieved, the award of 150MW of wind capacity would more than double Kosovo’s cumulative total.
Kosovo had one of the fastest percentage growths in wind power as share of electricity generation last year, according to the global energy think tank Ember.
Its current operational capacity comprises the 102.6MW Selac (Bajgora) and 32.4MW Kitka wind farms. Both feature GE turbines.
Neighbouring Albania announced the results of its first wind auction in July, when Total Eren, Güriş and Verbund were successful.
Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: renewables
Renewable energy sources — once the fuel of the future, then practical in specific, narrow applications — are increasingly economic mainstream sources of power generation. Hydropower was long the mainstay of U.S. renewable electricity generation, although wind power surpassed hydro for the first time in 2019, and solar continues its rapid growth. The continued growth of wind and solar, with their fluctuations, is tied in part to improvements in storage technology: batteries.