Montenegro's Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property has issued a building permit to Sunrise Europe for the Dubrovsko solar power plant, a 220 MW project paired with a 400 MWh battery energy storage system. The developer is based in the coastal town of Kotor.
The project
The solar plant and the battery will cover a site of 274.8 hectares in the cadastral municipalities of Dubrovsko and Duži, in the municipality of Šavnik. The site will also host a 33/110 kV substation to connect the plant to the grid. According to the permit, the battery will be made up of 20 units of 20 MWh each.
The permit comes with firm deadlines. Construction must begin within two years, or the investor loses the permit, and the ministry's decision sets 2031 as the deadline for completion, five years after the permit was issued.
Sunrise Europe has been preparing the project for several years. In January 2023, the Government of Montenegro gave the company the urban planning and technical requirements it needed to draw up the technical documentation.
A step change for Montenegro
If it is built, Dubrovsko will transform the country's solar fleet. Montenegro has no large solar plants today. Its biggest is the 4.4 MW Čevo Solar, the country's first ground-mounted plant, which was installed at the end of 2023. Dubrovsko would be fifty times larger. More than 9,150 rooftop solar systems operate at companies, households and public institutions across the country.
Montenegro also has three wind farms. The newest, Gvozd, was commissioned in May.
A run of permits
Dubrovsko is the third renewable energy project to receive a building permit in Montenegro since July. France-based Qair obtained a permit in July for a 50 MW solar plant in the municipality of Nikšić, and in October the government issued a building permit for the 88 MW Korita wind farm in the municipality of Bijelo Polje.
Together, the three permits cover 358 MW of new solar and wind capacity, plus the 400 MWh of storage at Dubrovsko. For a country whose largest operating solar plant is under 5 MW, that is a significant pipeline.
Why the battery matters
At its full output of 220 MW, the 400 MWh battery could store close to two hours of the plant's production. That allows the project to shift part of its midday output into the evening and to offer flexibility to the grid, which becomes more valuable as more solar comes online in the region.
Including storage from the start also reduces the risk that a large plant in a small power system has to cut its output at times of low demand, a problem that has grown in larger solar markets.
What it means for European developers
Montenegro is a small market, but Dubrovsko shows that the Western Balkans are moving from rooftop systems and pilot plants towards utility-scale solar paired with storage. The strict two-year deadline to start construction means that financing, procurement and grid work will have to move quickly, creating near-term opportunities for EPC contractors, equipment suppliers and lenders. The run of permits since July also suggests that Montenegro's approval process is opening up for larger wind and solar projects, which may encourage other developers to bring their plans forward.
Source: Balkan Green Energy News, based on the building permit issued by Montenegro's Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property.
