Power trader and operator (EFT) has signed an agreement on the construction of a 60-megawatt (MW) solar plant in Bosnia with China's Dongfang Electric International Corporation (DEC), the EFT said in a statement on Friday.

Last year EFT won a tender published by autonomous Serb Republic to build and operate for 50 years the Bileca solar power plant in the southeastern Bosnia, expected to cost 85 million Bosnian marka ($49.3 million), expanding its presence in the Balkan country.

Work is expected to begin in the second quarter, and commercial operation start in mid-2023, EFT said. The plant will have annual output of 84 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity to be sold on the open market.

EFT operates a 300 MW Stanari coal-fired power plant, near the northern town of Doboj, the first privately funded power plant in the Western Balkans which came online in 2016.

It is also building a 35 MW Ulog hydro power plant on the Neretva river. The plant, worth 150 million Bosnian marka, is also expected to be online in the second half of 2023.