Georgian-Austrian company Infinite Energy develops a wind farm project Imereti 1 in Sachkhere with installed capacity of 100 mgwt.
The director of the company, Tornike Bakhturidze, told BMG that in the summer of 2017, the company was ready to start construction of Imereti 1, but could not move forward due to a disagreement with the government over the electricity tariff. The support mechanism that the government is offering to renewable energy project developers is not acceptable to the investor.
"By August 2017, we were ready to sign a final contract and start construction of the wind farm with installed capacity of 100 mgwt, but unclear tariff policy and lack of support mechanism made this impossible”, - Tornike Bakturidze said.
The director of the company declares, that they are demanding to start construction of the project immediately as soon as they will sign a tariff agreement with the government.
“The government has not approved such tariff, which is acceptable for the energy sector”, - Tornike Bakhturidze said, adding that the draft version of the contract is already agreed and the company is waiting for the decision on the tariff policy.
Georgia has only one wind power plant, which is located in Gori. Its installed capacity is 20 mgwt. The state electricity system buys 1 kWh of electricity produced by this facility at a predetermined tariff, which amounts to 6.89 cents.
