Norwegian hydropower company Clean Energy Invest will invest 8 billion kroner ($960 million) in a hydropower plant project (HPP) in Georgia, Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv reported.
‘This will be the biggest HPP ever built by a Norwegian company outside of Norway’, the company’s administrative director Bjørn Brandtzæg told journalists about the bid which was won last week.
According to the newspaper, approximately 1.5 billion kroner ($180 million) will come from investors, while the rest of the capital will come from a Turkish industrial company called Enka, and lending institutions. The planned power plant will have a projected annual production of 1.5–1.6 terawatt hours, and 436 megawatts of installed capacity.
Clean Energy Invest AS entered the Georgian market in 2010, when it was awarded a perpetual licence to develop, build, own and operate the hydropower potential on the River Acharistskali and its tributaries.
According to the company’s website, ‘the hydropower potential on the Adjaristsqali River and its tributaries is being developed through two phases, with parallel legal structures. Phase 1, the 178 MW Shuakhevi and 9 MW Skhalta HPP are being developed through the Georgian project company Adjaristsqali Georgia LLC.’
The Georgian parliament has passed legal amendments removing the last vestiges of independence from Adjara’s public broadcaster, subsuming it to the national public broadcaster.
On Friday, MPs from the ruling party adopted amendments to Georgia’s Law on Broadcasting eliminating the Adjara public broadcaster’s advisory board.
Adjara TV, based in the autonomous republic of Adjara in Western Georgia, was once hailed as a bastion of unbiased journalism in the country.
The changes effectively
The head of the west Georgian region of Adjara and the Mayor of Batumi have reportedly met with a Chechen businessperson with close ties to Ramzan Kadyrov.
TV Formula reported that the chair of the government of Adjara, Tornike Rizhvadze and Batumi Mayor Archil Chikovani hosted Aslanbek Akhetkhanov at a private party at the Radisson Hotel in Batumi on 29 May.
Sources told Formula that the lounge at which the party took place was closed off all night and that hotel personnel working in the lo
Georgian Dream have won a byelection for the Batumi City Council. While the council is now formally hung, a ‘neutral’ candidate is suspected to be a ruling party ally.
Georgian Dream’s candidate Ramaz Jincharadze won a convincing victory in Saturday’s vote for a majoritarian council seat in Batumi, Georgia’s second-largest city and the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara.
The result will upset plans by opposition groups the United National Movement (UNM) and Lelo to deny the ruling
Police have reportedly arrested up to 10 supporters of ultra-right wing and pro-Russia group Alt Info after they attacked a crowd protesting their newly-opened office in the Georgian town of Kobuleti.
Local activists came to the new branch of the Conservative Movement party, Alt Info’s recently created political wing, on Tuesday evening after holding a march in support of Ukraine, in the port city’s downtown area.
Rally co-organiser Nika Romanadze, who was among those injured in the attack