It’s a fact that Europe is among the leading continents to involve itself so deeply in renewable energy. With Germany and the United Kingdom making strides in wind and solar power, it’s now the turn of Serbia to do the same. The landlocked country has just signed a memorandum to construct what is billed to be the planet’s biggest solar park. It’s estimated that the park will require more than $2.5 billion to establish.

The solar park will be spread over a huge 3,000 ha of land and will have an estimated peak capacity of 1,000 MWp. A couple of days ago, Serbian minister Oliver Dulic signed the agreement with Luxembourg-based Securum Equity Partners. Dulic has said that it will take around five years for the park to be built which will open up job avenues for about 3,000 workers.

The minister also said that the country has agreed to lease out the required land at no cost to Securum though it will generate income from taxes. Incidentally, the revenue is expected to touch a handsome 750 million Euros.

Once a suitable location has been found, work on the park could begin as early as next year. The decision to establish the world’s largest solar park in Serbia is due to the fact that the country receives around 40 percent more sunlight than the rest of southeast Europe. It also has a highly skilled labor force, according to an official of Securum.

Solar parks have been slowly cropping up all over the world as countries attempt to reduce their dependency on conventional fossil fuel-derived energy. India’s state of Gujarat also recently opened what is believed to be Asia’s largest solar park in a bid to gradually switch over to renewables. The going may be slow and tedious, but it appears that the tradition of generating electricity from fossil fuels is slowly being replaced by more advanced and eco friendly forms of energy.

Via: Economictimes

Original Article on EcoFriend