Subotica to roll out plan for Maestrale Ring wind farm of 599.2 MW

Serbia’s northernmost city is paving the way in the administrative sense for the beginning of physical work on what could be one of the biggest investments in decades. Members of the local assembly decided a detailed regulation plan would be produced for the construction of Fintel Energia Group SpA’s wind power plant worth an estimated EUR 700 million.

Maestrale Ring is envisaged to be built on 10,815 hectares near Čantavir, Višnjevac, Gabrić, Bikovo, Stari Žednik and Novi Žednik, villages in Subotica territory. Rules stipulate that turbines must be at least one kilometer from houses and land designated for construction in Čantavir, Novi Žednik, Bačko Dušanovo and Višnjevac.

In the last semiannual report filed by the firm trading on the Belgrade Stock Exchange as Fintel Energija AD, the capacity of the power plant under development is 599.2 MW, compared to its earlier projection of 572 MW. The Italian group has several joint ventures in Serbia running wind power endeavors, but Vetropark Maestrale Ring Doo, registered in the country’s capital, is 100% controlled by it.

The deadline for the documentation is ten months and officials in Subotica delegated the task to Public Enterprise for Road Management, Urban Planning and Housing and Belgrade-based Projektura

Subotica gave its Public Enterprise for Road Management, Urban Planning and Housing and Belgrade-based Projektura Doo ten months to complete the step toward the installation that should generate enough electricity for half a million households.

The project also needs a strategic environmental impact assessment, as revealed by the documents issued this month. The expenses will also be covered by Fintel’s subsidiary. Relevant engineers and planners will study meteorological factors, land morphology, transport and infrastructure and the effect on inhabited districts nearby and further away.

The project also needs a strategic environmental impact assessment

The opposition in the local parliament criticized the proposal, claiming the buffer of one kilometer is too narrow. It expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that arable land would be used.

On the other hand, assemblyman Mikloš Balaša, who lives in Čantavir, said the village and the whole city will have benefits. He asserted the investors would put a layer of rock on 75 kilometers of dirt roads. Cables from the towers toward a new substation should mostly be beneath them, officials revealed. The company is reportedly going to pay owners for the use of land even during initial research, and works are said to be scheduled to start in two years.