January 17 (SeeNews) - The Swiss government has agreed to invest an additional 1.2 million euro ($1.28 million) and 500,000 Swiss francs (466,564 euro) in a project for the construction a biomass-fired co-generation plant in the Belgrade suburb of Padinska Skela, an official said.
Switzerland signed an amendment to the project agreement, increasing its total contribution to 7.598 million euro and 973,400 Swiss francs, the National Programme Officer for Energy and Public Finance Management of the Swiss Cooperation Office Serbia, Ana Pajkovic, told SeeNews in an e-mailed statement late on Monday.
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Belgrade mayor Sinisa Mali signed the amendment alongside Swiss Ambassador to Serbia Philippe Guex and Serbian energy minister Aleksandar Antic, the minicipal government said in a press release on Monday.
The energy produced by the biomass-fired co-generation plant will be used by Olga Petrov school and Dr Laza Lazarevic hospital in Belgrade. The project also includes improvement of the energy efficiency of the two buildings, Mali said in the press release.
Belgrade city authorities will invest 1.5 million euro in the construction of a heat pipe connecting the buildings to the co-generation plant, he pointed out.
The electricity generated by the plant will be sold to the Serbian national electricity company EPS. The project will be completed by the end of 2018, according to data from the Swiss Embassy to Serbia.
In September 2014, the city of Belgrade said it started the process of obtaining a building permit for a 7.9 million euro biomass-fired co-generation plant, co-financed by the Swiss government with 6.4 million euro.
The Cooperation Office is part of the Swiss Embassy and its goal is to contribute to Serbia’s transition towards strong democratic systems, social inclusion and enhanced competitiveness of its economy, according to information posted on the embassy's website. The programme of the Cooperation Office is jointly implemented by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), and the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM). The Swiss Cooperation Strategy for Serbia 2014 – 2017 has a total budget of some 86 million euro.
($ = 0.937984 euro)