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A project to build a solar power plant with an installed capacity of more than 200 MW on the Briska Gora locality has attracted three bids – from a consortium of Finland’s state energy company Fortum and Montenegro’s state power utility Elektroprivreda Crne Gore (EPCG), Chinese-Maltese International Renewable Energy Development Limited (IREDL), and the Montesolar consortium, according to a statement from the Montenegrin Ministry of Economy.
The Briska Gora solar power plant project in the municipality of Ulcinj will not require citizens to finance it through incentives collected through electricity bills, the ministry said.
The tendering commission will propose the winning bidder to the Montenegrin government within 30 days, according to the statement.
The Ministry of Economy said earlier that tendering documentation for the Briska Gora solar power plant had been purchased by 11 companies, most of which from EU member states, the Middle East, and China.
The Ministry of Economy invited bids on May 19 for a 30-year lease to 6,621,121 square meters of state-owned land to design, build, operate, and maintain a solar plant with an installed capacity of more than 200 MW on the Briska Gora location.
The minimum required bid for the solar plant project is EUR 0.05 per square meter a year, or a total of some EUR 331,056 annually. This means the lease would cost no less than around EUR 9.93 million over the 30-year period.
Construction on the solar plant is to be carried out in phases, with Phase 1 to involve building at least 50 MW of capacity within 18 months of signing the land lease agreement, and Phase 2 the remaining capacity within 36 months of the signature.
Strong investor interest registered in renewables without incentives
The Montenegrin government recently said that the Ministry of Economy has registered strong investor interest in the construction of facilities using renewable energy sources without incentives for generated electricity.
In its 2018 report on Montenegro, the European Commission advises the country to move to market-based support schemes for renewable energy production given that it overshot its 33% renewables target for 2020 back in 2016, when the share stood at 41.6%.
“The country needs to move to an auction system compliant with the 2014-2020 Guidelines on State aid for environmental protection and energy,” the report reads.
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