Serbia – Solar – The Strange Case of the Wandering Solar Park of Merdare

A moving story

Early in the afternoon of Monday, 22 August 2011, the Serbian news agency Beta published a story about the imminent construction of what is being billed as the “first solar power plant in Kuršumlija”: “Prva solarna elektrana u Kuršumliji”.  The plant is to be built by the Italian firm “Multienerdži” (Multienergy) at a place called Matarova, a village in the southern Serbian municipality of Kuršumlija that is situated just 1.5 km east of the border of the province of Kosovo.  According to Beta, the installed capacity of the Matarova solar power plant will be 2 MWp, it will be built on 400 hectares of land, it is expected to produce 2.5 million kWh (2.5 GWh) of electricity annually, and the investment will amount to roughly € 5 million.  Beta quotes the company’s director, Ms. Verica Ristić, as saying that the solar park will be built “by the beginning of October”.  But the article also quotes the company’s president, Mr. Djovani Filpini [sic], as saying that the facility will be built within 60 days of all permits being obtained, and likewise quotes an economic development official for the municipality of Kuršumlija, Mr. Dejan Jovanović, as saying that the construction permit has not yet been obtained but should be obtained “soon”.

This story is important not so much for the energy news that it announces as for the splendid example it provides of the uncompromising laziness and sloppiness of journalistic reporting on energy matters in the Balkans, and in Serbia in particular.  Not one of the numerous news sites that republished or translated the news from Beta realized that 400 hectares (4 square kilometers!) would be an insanely large area for a photovoltaic power plant of 2 MWp.  (New PV plants today typically occupy about 1-2 hectares per megawatt, so a plant of 2 MW would typically take up about 2-4 hectares.)  What is worse, none of them realized that this entire story was simply a slightly updated regurgitation of a story first published three months earlier.

In fact the company that is now promising to build the “first solar power plant in Kuršumlija” at the village of Matarova was promising, back in May 2011, to build the “first solar power plant in Serbia” at the Kuršumlija village of Merdare.  But if we consider that 1) the village of Matarova is situated immediately to the north of the village of Merdare in the municipality of Kuršumlija, 2) the Kuršumlija area lies in an obscure corner of Serbia where very few energy projects get undertaken, and 3) the Merdare plant was supposed to be completed by September or October and the Matarova plant is expected to be completed by the beginning of October, then we probably would be justified in concluding that the two projects are one and the same.

 Merdare (from kWh)

Indeed the Merdare story was first published by Beta itself on 11 May 2011: “Merdare dobija solarnu elektranu”.  In this story the plant is billed as “the first solar park in Serbia”, the cost of the project is expected to be roughly € 5 million, and the installed capacity will be 2 MWp.  Six days later, on 17 May, a more complete article was published by the national television network RTS, including a 2-minute video segment shown on the national evening news.  Here the details given for the Merdare project are an installed capacity of 2 MWp, an area of 4 hectares, an investment of roughly € 5 million, and annual production of roughly 2.5 million kWh.  The RTS article places emphasis on how the arrival of Serbia’s first PV plant in this obscure but sunny region will turn the local economy around and reverse the exodus of young people from the area, and will create jobs.  (The Italian investors must have forgotten to inform the local development officials that even in Italy a PV plant of 2 MWp will have, at most, perhaps one full-time security guard.)  Finally the national power company itself, EPS, published in the May 2011 issue of its monthly magazine kWh a short article on the Merdare project where, apparently for the first time, we see the area of the project given as 400 hectares and the name of the Italian president of Multienergy (Giovanni Filippini) mistakenly converted into Serbian not as “Filipini” but as “Filpini”.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about both news events – both the Multienergy “Merdare” news blitz of May 2011 and the Multienergy “Matarova” blitz of earlier this week – is that no one in the press seems to have had the slightest inclination to find out more about this company, “Multienergy”, and its Italian investors.

Who or what is “Multienergy”?

A quick check of the records of the Serbian Business Registers Agency reveals that Multienergy (Multienergy Consulting d.o.o.) was founded in Belgrade and entered in the business register on 2 February 2011:

Multienergy Consulting d.o.o.

Skadarska 51, Beograd-Stari Grad, Serbia

Registry code (Јмб):	20708697
Tax number:	106933086
Registry date:	02.02.2011
Registry number:	БД 10829/2011
Founding date:	02.02.2011

Portion of Serbian Business Registers Agency extract

The company is owned 25% each by four Italian passport holders: Sonia Grigolato, Diego Grigolato, Giovanni Filippini, and Davide Rosina.  On 28 January 2011 these four Italian citizens each contributed € 250 (two hundred fifty euros) to found the company.  The company’s management consists of its director Vera Ristić (born in Serbia in 1960), who is required to obtain prior approval from the founder-shareholders for any transaction in excess of € 5,000. 

The firm’s accounting information is registered (with the same registry code number) to “Multienergy Consulting d.o.o. Novi Sad”, with an address at Maksima Gorkog 34, Novi Sad, Serbia.

Who are these four Italian investors?  Let us consider them in order.

First “Sonia Grigolato”.  In February of 2010 the Chamber of Commerce of the city of Mantova (Mantua) in Lombardia listed a “Sonia Grigolato” as the managing director of the inactive company C.I.P.E.R. S.r.l., located at Via dei Bersaglieri, 9, 46040 Casaloldo, Mantova.  In March 2011 the same Chamber of Commerce reported the conversion of the firm C.I.P.E.R. S.r.l. on 3 February 2011 into the firm Ecotec S.r.l., with the same address, managing director, and VAT number.

For “Diego Grigolato” nothing useful can be found on Google for Italy.

Ditto for “Giovanni Filippini”.

And “Davide Rosina”?  Here we strike paydirt.  There is a “Davide Rosina” who is managing director of the firm “MDM Solar S.p.A.”, a firm with the following contact information:

Via Padana Superiore 82/i
25080 Molinetto di Mazzano (BS)
Phone: (+39) 030 21 220 83
Fax: (+39) 030 51 099 89 

This firm offers investors the possibility to invest in small PV parks of 1 MWp – at least in Italy – so this could be the same “Davide Rosina” who is a 25% owner of Multienergy Consulting d.o.o.   Given that the Italian government's issuing of the Quarto Conto Energia in May largely killed off business for PV development studios in Italy, it would not be surprising if at about that same time an Italian PV developer began bringing together Italian investors to test the waters in the heretofore untapped market of Serbia.

Having a little innocent fun at the locals’ expense?

The Beta story on Merdare of 11 May, as reported by B92, stated that that area had been chosen for Serbia’s first solar plant because EPS reported that Kuršumlija has “the greatest number of sunny days annually” in Serbia, and this claim was repeated in the RTS report.  And yet eight months earlier, on 16 September 2010, the same B92 had published the news that a village named Velika Biljanica, five kilometers northeast of the city of Leskovac, had been chosen as the site for Serbia’s first solar plant because Serbia’s Republic Hydrometeorological Service had identified that spot as the sunniest around, with around 200 days of sunshine annually.  And Leskovac is about 50 kilometers from Kuršumlija, and slightly further south.  So either the national power company EPS has better insolation information than the Republic Hydrometeorological Service, or someone has been having a little fun at the expense of the poor folks of Kuršumlija.

Maps (click to enlarge):

From Mapa Srbije:

From PlanPlus - Digitalna mapa Srbije i Crne Gore:

From the Vojnogeografski institute 1:100,000 topographic map 631 Priština (1982-83):

Composite map from the Vojnogeografski institut 1:25,000 topographic maps 631-1-2 Priština 1-2 (Podujevo) (1972) and 631-2-1 Priština 2-1 (Mala Kosanica) (1972):

From the 1893 atlas of the Kingdom of Serbia at 1:75:000 by the Serbian General Staff: Ž 10, Podujevo: Beograd: Geografsko odeljenje Glavnog đeneralštaba, 1893:

 

References:

Odobrenje za solarnu elektranu

http://www.b92.net/info/vesti/index.php?yyyy=2010&mm=09&dd=16&nav_id=459070

četvrtak 16.09.2010 | 07:25

Merdare dobija solarnu elektranu

http://www.b92.net/biz/vesti/srbija.php?yyyy=2011&mm=05&dd=11&nav_id=511526

sreda 11.05.2011 | 17:28

Прва соларна електрана у Србији

http://www.rts.rs/page/stories/ci/story/56/%D0%A1%D1%80%D0%B1%D0%B8%D1%98%D0%B0+%D0%B4%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%81/893292

уторак, 17. мај 2011, 15:19 -> 16:44

Италијани инвестирају у Мердаре

Прва соларна електрана

“kWh”, no. 448 (maj 2011), p. 19

http://www.eps.rs/publikacije/list_kwh/2011/broj_448_web.pdf

Prva solarna elektrana u Kuršumliji

http://www.b92.net/biz/vesti/srbija.php?yyyy=2011&mm=08&dd=22&nav_id=536665

ponedeljak 22.08.2011 | 14:09

Solar power plant in Kursumlija, Serbia

http://limun.hr/en/main.aspx?id=735957

23.8.2011 13:06:00