(Yicai) May 28 -- Chinese construction engineering firm Norinco International unveiled plans to invest EUR105.9 million (USD115.2 million) in a photovoltaic project in Bosnia and Herzegovina to expand in the central and eastern European energy markets.

Norinco will spend EUR13 million (USD14.1 million) to buy a majority stake in the solar project’s operator Aurora Solar from its largest shareholder Tehnomerkur and three individual shareholders, the Beijing-based company announced yesterday. After the transfer, Norinco will own 80 percent of Aurora and Tehnomerkur the remaining 20 percent.

Once the acquisition of Aurora is completed, Norinco and Tehnomerkur will invest EUR19.4 million each to increase the project company’s capital, with Norinco’s Hungarian unit contributing EUR15.5 million of its own funds. The remaining EUR77.5 million will be used by Norinco to provide loans to the project company.

Aurora operates a 125-megawatt solar project in the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is 90 kilometers away from Sarajevo. The project has a construction period of one year and is expected to provide 205 million kilowatt-hours of electric power to the grid during its 25-year operation period.

Norinco is engaged in a wide range of businesses, with excellent performance and strong competitiveness in rail transportation, power engineering, oil and mineral facilities construction, and solar energy product application.

Investing in clean energy projects in Europe has become complicated for Chinese companies because of investigations from the European Union. In fact, two Chinese companies gave up their PV project plans in Romania, another eastern European country, earlier this month.

The first project was a public procurement project worth about EUR375 million for the construction of a 455-megawatt-hours PV park won by the joint venture between Romanian engineering and consulting service provider Enevo Group and the German subsidiary of Longi Green Energy Technology. The second was a similar project won by the JV between two units of Shanghai Electric Group.

Editors: Xu Wei, Futura Costaglione