Feasibility study finished for construction of first "Italian" hydroelectric power plant on the Ibar - state may make significant profit

- The feasibility study for construction of hydroelectric power plants on the Ibar river has been finished - people from Italian company Seci told RTS. The Minister of Energy says that the state will make profit because that electricity will be up to five times more expensive than the commercial one.

Italians plan to have 10 hydroelectric power plants built on the Ibar. The feasibility study is finished, but the details of the project, for which EPS and Seci signed the agreement, have not been revealed. The joint task force still agrees on the details of the study and it should be presented to the public prior to mid-March at the latest.

The plan is that small hydroelectric power plants of about 110 MW on the Ibar be built in the section between Raška and Kraljevo. As RTS learns, there are 14 possible locations for 10 hydroelectric power plants.

The population in that area is protesting against violation of the natural resources of the river and its banks. People in the Ministry of Energy and EPS claim that the hydroelectric power plants would be built in the way to fit into the natural ambient of that area and its historical monuments.

Positive and negative sides of the project

Experts estimate the project as negative because, according to them, it is not good to let the renewable sources be used by other countries although the EU's latest energy directives allow that.

Nikola Nikolić from Energy Saving Group says that the directive allows the third country to invest in some other country and use its renewable energy potential, but it does not explain the reasons why that is done and if it is for political or economic reasons.

The Minister of Energy points out that the good sides of that project are the employment of domestic companies and the incomes from the price of that electricity, which will be, as he says, up to five times higher than the commercial price.