Tirana, 24 Nov. 2008 - Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi will visit Tirana on December 2, in a bid to seal the Albanian government’s approval for the construction of two coal-fired power plants. Local authorities approved last week the construction of a large energy park in the Porto Romano area, close to the port city of Durres.

The energy park will include a three million tones oil refinery, two 800 megawatt coal-fired thermal power plants, and a gas and bio-diesel terminal. The construction of the project will be carried on by the Italian energy giant Enel.

Enel ultimately plans to extend its plant with a generating capacity of approximately 1,300 megawatts, which would supply electricity to both the Italian and Albanian markets.

However, environmental groups charge that Albania does need such large power plants and they are being built without informing the public fairly on their environmental impact.

“At one meeting that Enel held with local villagers to discuss the environmental impact, they spoke in English,” Xhemal Mato, head of Albania’s Environmental League told Balkan Insight.

According to Mato, with the plants Albania will move from having 98 percent of its power generation carbon emission free, to roughly 40 per cent.

“The only reason Enel is coming to Albania is that they cannot pollute at home,” he added.

Over the past two years, Albania has been hit by an acute energy crisis, with regular power cuts throughout the country, including the capital Tirana.

Almost all of Albania’s domestically-produced electricity is generated by hydro-power plants, which are badly affected by droughts, but even when rain is plentiful, the obsolete distribution grid causes major problems.

International organisations that monitor the Albanian economy, including the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, have expressed concern that the energy crisis could have an adverse effect on the country’s robust economic growth, which has been averaging close to 6 percent per annum since 2006.

Contributed by Balkaninsight