China to invest two billion euros in renewable energy in Serbia

China is investing two billion euros (49.5 billion CZK) in the construction of wind and solar power plants and hydrogen production facilities in Serbia. This is the largest investment in renewable energy to date in the Balkan country. Reuters reported the news, citing an announcement by the Serbian Ministry of Mining and Energy.

The ministry, Chinese company Shanghai Fengling Renewable and Zijin Copper, a subsidiary of China’s Zijin Mining, signed a memorandum of understanding today. The document provides for the construction of a wind farm with a capacity of 1,500 megawatts (MW), a solar power plant with a capacity of 500 MW and a hydrogen production plant with an annual capacity of approximately 30.000 tonnes. Shanghai Fengling Renewable is the main investor.

The energy produced will be used at a copper mine and smelter owned by Zijin near the town of Bor in eastern Serbia. “This project will enable Zijin to produce a significant share of its electricity needs sustainably,” said Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Djedovič Handanovič.

Zijin Mining became a strategic partner of Serbian copper miner RTB Bor in 2018. In exchange for a 63% stake in the company, it pledged to invest 1.3 billion dollars (29.6 billion CZK) and open the Čukaru Peki underground copper and gold mine in 2021.

China has invested billions of euros in the country, an EU candidate, as part of the New Silk Road initiative, mostly in the form of preferential loans. The initiative was launched in 2013 by Chinese President Xi Jinping. It provides developing countries with funding to build infrastructure such as ports, roads and bridges. However, a number of European countries and the United States view the initiative as an unhealthy expansion of the Chinese regime’s influence and want to counterbalance it.