Montenegro stops licensing new small hydropower plants

The Government of Montenegro has decided to suspend the procedure of approving the construction of new small hydropower plants (SHPPs) until the contracts concluded so far are reviewed.

The new Montenegrin government announced in early December that it would ban new small hydropower plants and review all existing concession agreements. Only a month earlier, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina decided to abolish subsidies for small hydropower plants. These decisions in BiH and Montenegro are a result of the growing public discontent over the damage small hydropower plants cause to the environment.

At its latest session, the Montenegrin government adopted a document on the implementation of projects in the sector of renewable energy sources, which was prepared by the Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism.

The construction of SHPP Slatina, which is being built by Milo Đukanović’s son, has also been stopped

The government has agreed to stop approving the construction of small hydropower plant Slatina on the Slatinariver in the municipality of Kolašin, as well as new small hydropower plants, until the revision of the procedure and the legality of concession agreements for small hydropower plants is finished, the document reads.

The new government has already terminated seven concession agreements for the construction of small hydropower plants

Local media reported that the Slatina hydropower plant is being built by a company called BB Hidro, which is co-owned by BlažoĐukanović, son of Milo Đukanović, the President of Montenegro.

According to the document, on December 17, 2020, the government instructed the Ministry of Capital Investments to establish a working group tasked with reviewing the status of concluded concession agreements for small hydropower plants. On December 29, 2020 the government terminated concession agreements for the construction of seven such plants.