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A US small business will use a loan from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (Opic) to reconstruct a hydropower facility in Kosovo that was partially destroyed during the civil conflict of the 1990s.

Triangle General Contractors will use a US$5.5mn Opic loan to reconstruct the 8.3MW Kozhner hydropower facility in the western Decan region of Kosovo. Triangle won an international bid to reconstruct the Kozhner facility, as well as transmission lines linked to interconnection facilities near the project site. The plant will operated under a power purchase agreement with the utility provider in Kosovo, Korporata Energjetike e Kosoves.

The Kozhner power plant, located two hours outside of Pristina, began operations in 1957. The plant continued in operation until 1999 when it was partially destroyed in the civil war. Once operations were abandoned due to imminent threat, the plant was looted of key equipment. The facility has been idle ever since.

“Rehabilitation of the Kozhner hydropower facility not only demonstrates the progress made by Kosovo since the civil conflict of the 1990s, it delivers vital energy to ordinary Kosovars and should thereby stimulate other local economic development,” says Opic president, Peter Watson.