Çalık Renewables Opens Zatriq Wind Farm in Kosovo

Çalık Renewables, the renewable-energy investment arm of Türkiye’s Çalık Group, has formally opened its first wind power project in Kosovo.

The Zatriq wind farm was inaugurated on Sept. 10 at a ceremony attended by Kosovo’s prime minister, Albin Kurti; Economy Minister Artane Rizvanolli; Environment and Spatial Planning Minister Fitore Pacolli; Şeyda Çimeli Aydın, deputy counselor at the Turkish Embassy in Pristina; Switzerland’s ambassador to Kosovo, Anne-Lise Cattin Hennin; the mayor of Rahovec, Smajl Latifi; Çalık Holding’s chairman, Ahmet Çalık; and Çalık Renewables’ general manager, Emre Erdoğan.

Zatriq, which has become Kosovo’s fourth wind power plant, is owned by EV Wind Park, a joint venture in which Çalık Renewables holds a 75 percent stake and the Kosovar company Eurokos holds 25 percent. The project has a total licensed capacity of 70 Megawatts, comprising two 35-Megawatt capacities.

The plant consists of 12 turbines supplied by GE Vernova, each with a capacity of 6 Megawatts. With a capacity of 70 MWe/73 MWm, it is expected to generate 185 Gigawatt-hours of electricity annually.

Electricity generated by the plant will be purchased for 15 years by Kosovo’s transmission and electricity market operator, KOSTT, at a reference price set annually by the country’s Energy Regulatory Office, or ERO.

Çalık Renewables previously secured €112 million in financing for the project from Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen Girozentrale, known as Helaba, backed by a guarantee from Swiss Export Risk Insurance. The financing agreement covers the construction period and the subsequent 14 years.

Kosovo currently generates more than 90 percent of its electricity from coal. The country aims to reach 1,300 Megawatts of renewable-energy capacity by 2031 and to generate 35 percent of its electricity from renewable sources.

Kosovo’s first wind power plant began operating in 2018 with an investment by the Turkish company GÜRİŞ.