During a working visit to Niksic, the deputy prime minister Petar Ivanovic visited Krnovo in order to monitor implementation of the project, whose completion will provide additional quantities of electricity to Montenegro.
“We visited Krnovo a month ago and a lot of work has been done. All wind farms have been delivered and the big problem we had was solved in the meantime. Today, 12 windmills are being installed and seven windmills that had been earlier installed have been connected into a single technological unit, which, under certain technological conditions, could be activated independently from the rest of the project”, Ivanovic said.
He added that the project would be fully completed by the end of September or beginning of October, if there would be favourable weather conditions.
President of the Municipality of Niksic, Veselin Grbovic, said that total power of the windmills was 72MW.
“The total investment, including the transmission line to Brezna and local transmission substation, is €120-130m worth and it is one of the largest investments not only in Niksic but also in Montenegro”, Grbovic said.
The first windmill has been delivered on the construction site on the Krnovo hill on 1 June. Its parts weighing 153 tonnes, which are up to 50 metres long, were transported by a special truck.
It is an energy project which includes the construction of 30 wind turbines, two substations, transmission lines and a building for the purpose of the facility maintaining on the Krnovo hill. Montenegrin government and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) signed agreement on the project.
The construction of 72MW windmills on the Krnovo hill, which are about €120m worth, began in May 2015. They are expected to generate 200–230GWh of electricity a year.
The windmills will be installed at about 1,500 meters above sea level where the average wind speed is estimated at about 5.5 to 6.5 meters per second. Completion of their construction will contribute to achieving the national target of a 33% share of renewable energy in final consumption.
The project on the Krnovo hill is being implemented by the Austrian company Ivicom Consulting and the French company Akuo Energy. A representative for the construction is the newly established company Krnovo Green Energy, whereas the project financiers, in addition to the EBRD, are the German Development Bank (KfW) and Proparco, a French investment company for economic cooperation promotion.
The project is significant for the economy of Montenegro. Its implementation was delayed due to unresolved property relations and disputes with landowners who were dissatisfied with estimated value of their real estate.
Before the project implementation began, it was announced that the windmills on the Krnovo hill represented the first large investment in electric power capacities in Montenegro since 1980.
The 20 year lease contract of state land, with possibility of extension up to a maximum of five years, was concluded on 5 August 2010. According to the contract, for the first 12 years of operation the guaranteed purchase price of electricity generated by the windmill cannot be lower than €95.99 per MWh.
