Sunny Albania turns to solar energy to gas improvement
By Briseida Mema and Camille Bouissou
Karavasta, Albania (AFP) Oct 10, 2023
Alongside southwestern Albania’s shoreline, the solar shines vivid — warming the 234,828 new photo voltaic panels on the Karavasta energy station that might be linked to the nation’s vitality grid within the coming weeks.
In lower than two years, the French-owned Voltalia firm has constructed the most important solar-powered plant within the Western Balkans, the place a lot of the area stays reliant on fossil fuels together with coal.
Positioned on 200 hectares of land offered by the Albanian authorities on the sting of the Karavasta lagoon nationwide park, the plant will be capable to generate 140 megawatts, powering a whole lot of hundreds of properties within the nation of simply 2.8 million individuals.
The surge in vitality might be a welcome shot within the arm for the Balkan nation — the place energy outages had been lengthy a scourge following the collapse of its communist governments within the early Nineties.
And whereas the grid has stabilised lately, energy cuts are nonetheless widespread.
Albania at present receives roughly 99 % of its electrical energy from hydroelectric energy stations.
However with common droughts and ramshackle vitality infrastructure courting again to its communist period, Albanian has struggled to maintain tempo with the nation’s break-neck improvement fuelled by the tens of millions of vacationers it welcomes yearly.
A groundswell of activism lately towards a string of latest hydropower initiatives pushed the Albanian authorities to create a nationwide park final 12 months to guard the Vjosa River, considered one of Europe’s largest undammed waterways.
With the development of dams on maintain, Karavasta’s backers hope that 300 common days of sunshine a 12 months will make sure the steady manufacturing of energy.
“From this winter, 100% of the vitality produced by the Karavasta solar energy plant might be offered to the Albanian nationwide firm,” Constantin von Alvensleben, Voltalia’s nation supervisor for Albania, tells AFP.
“If Albania generates surplus electrical energy, will probably be in a position to export it to customers in neighbouring international locations reminiscent of Greece, Italy, Kosovo, Montenegro and Northern Macedonia.”
Though the nation promotes its inexperienced vitality sector, Albania produces round 650,000 tonnes of crude oil yearly from dilapidated infrastructure that environmentalists have lengthy criticised for the hurt it wreaks on native communities.
– Frogs and pelicans –
However alongside its sun-drenched shoreline, engineers say the terrain is good for photo voltaic parks.
Luca Anthouard, an engineer engaged on the mission, says the salty, unfarmable tracts of land round Karavasta have enabled builders to construct a mission “on a grand scale by European requirements”.
However earlier than the panels had been erected, the cracked earth was residence to small inexperienced frogs — often known as Pelophylax Shqipericus, or Albanian frogs.
“[They are] a protected species,” mentioned Vilma Terpollari, Voltalia’s environmental adviser who can be answerable for guaranteeing that the amphibians return to the positioning in giant numbers.
“We’ve drawn up particular initiatives to guard this species by creating new habitats in order that it may possibly return and reproduce right here,” she added.
All through the sprawling improvement, photographs of this small frog with a fluorescent inexperienced line throughout its again remind staff to take care.
The mission additionally options thick energy strains carrying electrical energy from the photo voltaic park to a redistribution station that would disturb the flightpath of birds.
“Voltalia has put in chook diverters,” mentioned Terpollari, “a primary in Albania”.
The characteristic — which is actually a big tower that makes the ability strains extra seen — is all of the extra essential as a result of southwestern Albania’s location throughout migratory flyways and nesting areas which might be residence to pelicans and pink flamingos.
Thousands and thousands of birds cross by way of the close by Narta lagoon and Karavasta estuary yearly, offering essential grounds for migratory species travelling between northern Europe and the African continent.
As for the inhabitants of the encircling villages, 53 households had their land appropriated to make manner for the development of the ability station and the ability line.
“They are going to be reimbursed by the state, in accordance with the regulation,” mentioned Ramatlen Bollobani, an advisor to the mission, including that Voltalia would additionally contribute to compensation for the households.
Just one household is contesting the land dispute.
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