Sunrise Europe obtains building permit for the 220 MW Dubrovsko solar plant with 400 MWh of storage

Kotor-based Sunrise Europe has obtained a building permit for the 220 MW Dubrovsko solar power plant, with a 400 MWh battery storage system, in the municipality of Šavnik in northern Montenegro, according to Balkan Green Energy News. The permit was issued by the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property.

What the permit provides. The panels and batteries will cover 274.8 hectares in the cadastral municipalities of Dubrovsko and Duži, where a 33/110 kV substation will also be built. The storage system consists of 20 units of 20 MWh each. Works must begin within two years of the permit being issued, or the right to build lapses, and the plant must be completed within five years, by 2031.

Project history. The government announced at the end of 2022 that urban planning and technical conditions had been issued for the Šavnik plant, with a maximum capacity of about 220 MW in alternating current, according to Montenegro Business. Sunrise Europe received those conditions in January 2023, according to Balkan Green Energy News. The environmental impact assessment later put peak output at up to 211 MW, with a 195 MW grid connection and production of 284 GWh a year.

Context. The country’s largest solar plant is currently the 4.4 MW Čevo Solar, installed at the end of 2023, and in February more than 9,150 companies, households and public institutions had rooftop panels. In recent months permits were also issued for a 50 MW solar plant by Qair in Nikšić, in July, and for the 88 MW Korita wind farm in Bijelo Polje, in October. Montenegro has three wind farms; the most recent, Gvozd, entered trial operation in May.

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