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Following a World Bank report released in January 2012 that supported the construction the proposed coal-fired power plant in Kosovo, environmental groups maintained that entrenched support for the coal project within the US State Department had obscured thinking about new, cleaner possibilities. The Sierra Club and others argued that the World Bank's analysis showed no near-term need for additional baseload capacity and noted that analysts had not actually calculated all of the costs involved in the plant or addressed Kosovo's needs for peaking power.<Ref name=duke/>
====Estimated cost of electricity====
The Sierra Club analyzed the “Terms of Reference” provided to the Kosovo Strategic Framework for Development and Climate Change Expert Panel on whether the proposed plant meets World Bank policy and determined that it does not, as "the cost of electricity that would be provided by the Kosovo plant is grossly underestimated" because "the predicted cost of electricity is based on the assumption that all four surviving Kosovo units will operate 85 per cent of the time" yet "overall demand would [likely] be 20 percent, not 85 percent, thus tripling the cost of generation for this plant." The report concluded that the plant will likely cost 2-3 times what project proponents claim, and that the country does not have enough base load demand to justify such a large power project.<ref>Bruce C. Buckheit, [http://action.sierraclub.org/site/DocServer/Review_of_TOR_Final.pdf?docID=8341 "A Review of World Bank Group Cost Estimates For New Lignite-fired Plants in Kosovo"] Sierra Club report, Oct. 2011.</ref>
The World Bank countered in a [http://bit.ly/rK9Oxj report] stating that the coal plant will cost twice as much as first estimated, but still advocated its construction.<Ref name=duke/>
===Environmental Assessment and Bids==
An environmental impact assessment is expected to be ready in draft form early 2015, and a board vote on World Bank funding could come by that autumn.<ref name=lf>Lisa Friedman, "U.S. team at World Bank pushes for Kosovo coal plant," E&E, January 30, 2015</ref>
In 2014 ContourGlobal, a New York-based international power generation company, submitted a bid for the project. A 2014 WB memo obtained by ClimateWire stated that U.S. agencies such as the Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corp. "may be an option with a U.S. bidder, but would need some political softening in Washington," to provide additional funds for the project.<ref name=lf/>
==Project Details==
