xinhuanet.com: chinese enterprise boosts clean energy development in montenegro
on the slopes of mount mozura between the city of ulcinj in southern montenegro and the famous coastal city of bar, stood 23 sets of 2 mw low-speed intelligent wind turbine generators (wtg) manufactured by chinese manufacturer envision energy. from top of the mountain, one could hear the rotation of wtg blades echo with the waves of adriatic sea at the foot of the mountain beating the shore.
there had been barren land on this coastal ridge ever before november 2017. now, mozura wind park, the second wind power project in montenegro, has been built here.
the 46 mw mozura wind park is a renewable energy project jointly constructed by sep (malta) holding ltd. affiliated to spic and maltese government in the third-party market, which started construction in november 2017. currently, the wind power station has completed construction, and is expected to be put into operation in the first half of this year.
montenegro has been confronted with long-term electricity shortages, and thus needs to import electricity. in 2017, the country's power imports accounted for around 32% of its total power consumption. meanwhile, as a candidate country for the european union, montenegro should fulfill its commitment to clean energy development as required by the eu. as a result, montenegro has been committed to increasing electricity production in recent years, while placing renewable energy generation as the priority.
mozura wind power project came at the right time. montenegrin minister of economy dragica sekulic said that the country has great development potential in renewable energy sources, and called mozura wind farm a "major step toward a more secure and stable supply of the coastal area with electricity".
according to the introduction of sheng baojie, ceo of sepm and chairman of malta montenegro wind power jv, the farm accounts for about 5% of the country's total power generation as calculated by that in 2017, and thus could meet the demand of 100,000 local residents. "this will greatly improve the stability of the grid and will be a real benefit to the residents of bar and surrounding areas which often suffer from power outages during the peak tourist season," he said.
"we are used to electricity restrictions and outages. many people here hope that in the future we will have more stable electricity supply and lower tariff," said sasa kekic, a local employee at the project, which has great hope for the future.
in addition to stable power supply, mozura wind power project has brought more employment opportunities for the local community, and promoted the development of relevant industries.
mozura project recruited around 500 local employees at most in the construction period, and most of them stayed with the wind farm after the project was completed. maintenance worker gavrilo borovic is one of them, and he is grateful for the professional skill training provided for local employees by the project. "in the future, we could stay to maintain the wind farm by ourselves," he said.
darko mijovic, a local resident at the site of mozura wind park, is also upbeat about the effects brought by the wind farm. he believed that the wind farm will help bar, ulcinj and wider regions obtain more stable power supply, which will boost the development of local tourism and benefit the whole country.
"the success of mozura wind power project has produced a certain influence in the balkan region, which is a good example," said sheng baojie. he believed the belt and road initiative provides a good environment for excellent domestic enterprises to "go global" and bring chinese manufacturing, chinese standards and chinese investment to europe for mutual benefits and win-win results.
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