Montenegro’s public electricity provider, Elektroprivreda Crne Gore (EPCG), and the Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning, and Urbanism have launched a net metering scheme to support the installation of 3,000 residential rooftop PV systems. Homeowners will be encouraged to engage in a programme that should provide a five to seven-year investment return.
Furthermore, certain households will be permitted to sell extra solar energy to the utility. The initiative is expected to produce up to Euro 30 million in investment and 400 jobs according to the authorities. This is the company’s first rooftop PV project and the EPCG is also building a 100 MW solar park in collaboration with the Finnish business Fortum, as well as a floating PV power plant on the Slano artificial salt lake.
According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, the country had only installed 6 MW of solar electricity by the end of 2020. The great majority of Montenegro’s electrical power demand is now fulfilled by the 225 MW Pljevlja thermal power plant in the north of the country, as well as two huge hydropower plants, Peruica (307 MW) and Piva (363 MW).
Montenegro has a rich history with electricity as the county’s electrification began in the first decade of the twentieth century. After only 28 years since the establishment of the world’s first electric power plant, the debt tradition has lasted nearly a century. Montenegro was thus added to the list of few European and world countries whose towns were illuminated by electricity at the time.