Brave Women of Kruščica win EuroNatur Award for averting construction of 2 SHPPs
The Brave Women of Kruščica have won the EuroNatur Award for 2019 for their 500-day action that prevented the construction of two small hydropower plants (HPPs) in the village in Bosnia and Herzegovina. For more than 500 days and nights, a group of women from the village of Kruščica blocked a bridge crossing the river […]
Albania approves 5 new construction permits for 8 small, medium HPPs
Albania’s National Territory Council (NTC) has approved 5 new construction permits for 8 small and medium hydropower plants (HPPs), local media reported. One of the permits refers to HPP Shutri 1 and HPP Shutri 2 on the Shutri stream. The project developer is ATEANI. The location of the power plants is relatively close to the […]
Run-of-river hydropower: Two years on, the struggle continues
More than two years on, the public and citizens across the Balkans fighting for the right to water and against run-of-river small hydropower plants are not giving up on their struggle. Protests and actions were organized from July 6 to 16 across the region, with a conference titled “Rakita – the rule of law crushed” […]
Let the sunshine in, say civil society groups
Author: Igor Vejnović, Hydropower Coordinator, CEE Bankwatch Network Eight civil society organisations last week submitted proposals for a revamp of Serbia’s renewables support scheme to the Ministry of Energy and Mining. All across Europe, renewables incentive schemes have been transformed in recent years to take account of the growing costs of feed-in tariffs for end […]
Republika Srpska to adopt new renewables incentive schemes by end-2019
Republika Srpska plans to introduce auctions for the construction of hydropower and solar power plants, as well as to continue using its power generation resources, including small and large hydropower plants and lignite-fired power plants. In an interview with Balkan Green Energy News, Petar Đokić, Minister of Energy and Mining of Republika Srpska, says that […]
Complaint submitted to EnC against North Macedonia over small hydropower plants
Environmental groups Eko-Svest and CEE Bankwatch Network have filed a complaint to the Energy Community (EnC) Secretariat over North Macedonia’s redesigned renewable energy incentives scheme which they say is unfairly favoring small hydropower plants (SHPPs). As of February, North Macedonia’s renewable energy incentives system subjects solar photovoltaic (PV) producers and most wind producers, but not […]
Protests against hydropower planned across Balkans from July 6-16
Environmental activists and civil society organizations (CSOs) from across the Balkans are organizing protests under the slogan “Our rivers – No DAMage!” in July over hydropower projects threatening to leave local populations without homes, arable lands, drinking water, and irrigation supply, or the landscape they have enjoyed for generations. The protests against hydropower plants (HPPs) […]
Montenegro to scrutinize small hydropower procedures, not to approve fresh subsidies
Representatives of the Government of Montenegro have announced that procedures for the construction of small hydropower plants (SHPPs) will be reviewed and that no subsidies will be approved for the construction of new SHPPs, local media reported. Even though Prime Minister Duško Marković has made it clear that he believes the issue of small hydropower […]