All further procedures for approving projects, granting environmental approvals and energy permits for small hydroelectric power plants (MHP) should be suspended without delay and a revision of all concessions and permits approved so far should be carried out.
This was requested from Coalition 27 at today's round table "Sustainability of hydro potential and natural values of Montenegro with reference to plans for the construction of small hydroelectric power plants on the Bukovica River and realized projects".
"Since 2008, 68 MHP construction projects have been approved on 45 river courses, 38 were approved through public tenders, and 30 through a shortened procedure, i.e. through energy permits from the Ministry of Economy. Out of those 38 that are undergoing the procedure of creating an environmental impact assessment report, the Agency approved 31. Currently, five are in the approval process, two on the Bukovica River, two on the Đurička River and one on the Bjelojevićka River. So far, 12 mHP have been built", said the secretary of the Coalition, Jelena Marojević Galić.
She stated that, although they are considered renewable energy sources, most of the concessions granted so far were granted without valid grounds, water and biological, with the absence of appropriate planning documents, strategic guidelines and precise data on the impact of the implementation of these projects on the environment.
"Given the suspicion that several important laws were violated during the granting of concessions, it is necessary to audit all approved concessions and permits. We invite the Government and the Ministry of Economy to draw up an Energy Development Strategy until 2030. It is necessary to amend the Energy Act in the part of regulating the model for encouraging production from renewable sources, in order to enable the application of the market premium model, which means that, following the example of other countries, In the EU, instead of a guaranteed energy price, tenders were announced and concessionaires were chosen based on the principle of who offers the best conditions. As for Bukovica, we welcome the return of the studies, but we express our doubt that the process of their refinement leaves room for their further improvement, and we believe that they should be completely rejected, Marojević Galić said.
Milija Čabarkapa from the NGO Green Home stated that MHE by definition should supply local consumers in accordance with their needs, but that this was not respected from the very beginning.
"The first problem in the MHP planning phase is the lack of water management foundations. At the time the projects were approved, there was no foundation. The cadastre of water with ecological and energy characteristics is especially important, so we did not have any data on the characterization of watercourses and data for biodiversity. There was only one cadastre of small watercourses for 13 municipalities made in 2012, which was not publicly available. The next problem was the lack of annual or multi-year planning for the allocation of concessions, although this was an obligation by law. A special problem was the insufficiently clearly defined responsibility of the concessionaire. Terminated contracts are the most colorful example, as was the case on the Bistrica river in the Bjelopolje municipality, where the concession contract was terminated due to the uneconomical construction of the HPP, precisely because of bad hydrological data. The construction process was started, it was abandoned, but the river remained devastated and no one was responsible for restoring it to its previous state. The locals protested because the Ministry of Economy, when awarding concessions, did not adequately inform the population in that area," Čabarkapa said.
Vuk Iković from the Montenegrin Society of Ecologists and UCG professor Vladimir Pešić assessed that quality research on the impact of the construction of MHP on the environment must last at least a year, which requires a lot of time, energy and money, so investors avoid it.
"If you take 90 percent of the water, usually 50 percent of the organisms in that space disappear. The question is how to find a compromise, and that's what impact assessment studies are for. In Montenegro, people perceive impact assessments as simply stating a list of species, but simply stating the number of species does not say much. Montenegro is known for few things in the world, and if it is extremely famous for something, it is for its endemics, and that is a great responsibility. It is a great treasure of every country and these endemics should be protected," said Pešić.
The executive director of Hydra MNE, which is planning the construction of two hydropower plants in Bukovica, Boban Garović said that there are 24.000 small power plants in Europe.
"Norway used 100 percent of the water potential, France and Italy 86 percent, Germany and Austria 88 percent. Do they have less environmental awareness than us? "There is a big fuss made about MHP, there is talk of the destruction of the entire nature, and MHP is the cleanest technology for electricity production, and the term green energy was not invented by investors, but by environmentalists," said Garović.
The executive director of Green Home, Nataša Kovačević, assessed that the hydrological conditions in Montenegro are different and specific compared to others in Europe.
"In addition to ecological, social and other parameters should be taken into account. I have been to those countries and it does not mean that they, even though they built so many MHPs, are proud of it. They admit that these are old solutions and many of them have been revitalized. In addition, they are mostly lowland rivers. With us, concessions are issued for the entire watercourse and an unlimited number can be set up in any place. The approach to planning itself is not good and I do not know that any concessionaire gave up or that the concession was terminated. MHE can be green, but depending on the vehicle and the technology used," she said.
The meeting criticized the conspicuous absence of representatives of the Ministry of Economy, who, as stated, have been refusing public dialogue with the civil sector for a long time regarding the impact of energy facilities on the environment.
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