Representatives of six local communities from the Budva municipality asked the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management in the technical mandate, Vladimir Joković, not to allow the felling of hundreds of hectares of forest in order to implement the project for the construction of the Brajići Paštrovska gora wind farm.
In the request that Vijesti had access to, and signed by the presidents of the local community councils of Sveti Stefan, Vladislav Mitrović, Brajići, Željko Stojanović, Bečići, Predrag Ivanović, Reževići, Aleksandar Radović, Petrovac, Željko Bjelica and Buljarica, Vlado Papan, from Joković asks to react now, because planning documents are being prepared that would foresee the construction of a wind turbine.
– We are turning to you with a request and request that you contribute to the preservation of our valuable ecological and natural resources in Brajići and Paštrovska Gora. Namely, the development of a detailed urban planning plan for the concession area of the project called Vjetroelektrana Brajići, which includes the belt of Brajić and Paštrovska Gora, is underway. The eventual construction of a wind power plant implies the construction of access roads, transmission lines, transformer stations, as well as huge platforms for raising wind turbines, and thus the cutting of hundreds, perhaps even thousands of hectares of forest on Brajići and Paštrovska Gora – it is written in the letter of the representatives of the local communities that also submitted to the responsible minister photos of the mountains where access roads and wind turbines are to be built, and where abundant forests can be clearly seen from all sides.
As they point out, they are not against green energy, but, as they warn, wind power plants are usually built in some deserted backwaters and transit zones, that is, areas that are not rich in forests or other natural resources.
– There is no logic that by destroying greenery in such a quantity, we are promoting “green” energy. Human greed is the cause of climate change, so it is man who must change, not our green natural environment. Bearing all this in mind, please do not, in accordance with your powers, allow the destruction and cutting of the forest in Brajići and Paštrovska Gora in such a way that you will not issue the necessary consents, or in any other way oppose the realization of the project in question at the given location. We hope that you will make a valuable contribution to the preservation of our valuable natural and ecological resources – the locals state in the letter.
At the end of July, representatives of local communities sent a letter to Prime Minister Dritan Abazović in which they made it clear that they would not allow the implementation of the Brajići Paštrovska gora wind power project.
– We resolutely oppose the construction of a wind power plant on Paštrovska Gora and we are ready to the end to comply with Article 78 of the Constitution of Montenegro, which states that everyone “is obliged to preserve natural and cultural heritage of general interest”. We will preserve our cultural and natural heritage with all our strength, to the last drop of sweat and with all available means within the limits of legal and natural law, as well as general principles of morality and good customs that have been valid here since the time of Byzantium and the Roman Empire – the locals warned at the time.
And that the Municipality of Budva is against wind turbines, Mayor Milo Božović recently presented this to the Minister of Capital Investments in the technical mandate, Ervin Ibrahimović, stating that there is no legal basis for the development of a spatial plan for the area of the concession area for the construction of a wind power plant in the Brajići location.
Namely, Ibrahimović asked the President of the Municipality of Budva to provide him with data on all locations that are already covered by a planning document that envisages the construction of a solar power plant or a wind power plant, in order, as he stated, to regulate spatial planning documentation at specific locations.
During 2019, a tender procedure was conducted for the long-term lease of state-owned land for the construction of a wind power plant at the Brajići location in the municipalities of Budva and Bar.
The only bidder that submitted an offer was the consortium of the German company WPD AG from Bremen and the company Vjetroelektrane Budva from Podgorica. The German-Montenegrin consortium predicted an investment of EUR 101.3 million for a wind power plant with a power of 100.8 megawatts, and for the lease of 220,770 square meters of state land, a price of EUR 2.5 per square meter per year. The consortium also offered EUR 21.6 million in participation from domestic companies and the construction of a new wind farm that will produce around 220 gigawatt hours of clean electricity per year, local media writes.
