Montenegro’s state power utility EPCG has completed most work on the second of three turbine foundations at its 21 MW Gvozd 2 wind project, moving the nearly €26 million expansion deeper into construction.
The project on the Krnovo plateau is expected to generate around 63 GWh a year once commissioned, adding new domestic wind output to a system whose import requirements can rise sharply during weak hydrological periods.
Gvozd 2 is being developed with turbine manufacturer Nordex and follows the first phase of the Gvozd wind complex.
Once the extension is completed, total capacity at the site is expected to reach 75.6 MW, with annual generation of more than 200 GWh.
The expansion is backed by European Bank for Reconstruction and Development financing.
The latest foundation milestone is important because Montenegro’s renewable project pipeline is considerably larger than the volume that has so far reached physical construction.
Solar, wind and storage projects have multiplied, but grid access, permitting, financing and construction remain the points at which development risk is increasingly concentrated.
Gvozd 2 has moved beyond those earlier development stages.
Its additional output will also diversify EPCG’s portfolio, which remains heavily dependent on hydropower.
That dependence gives Montenegro a relatively low-carbon electricity system in favourable hydrological years but leaves earnings and import requirements exposed to rainfall and reservoir levels.
Wind provides a different production profile and can reduce that exposure, although it introduces its own variability.
The value of Gvozd 2 will therefore depend not only on annual generation but on when that electricity is available.
Wind can be particularly useful when output coincides with periods of weak solar production or high regional prices.
Montenegro also has significant hydro flexibility, allowing reservoirs to complement variable wind production more effectively than in systems dominated by inflexible generation.
That creates potential portfolio value beyond the individual project’s output.
The expansion comes as EPCG develops a much wider renewable investment pipeline, including solar projects and additional wind capacity.
Montenegro is also increasingly connected to regional trading conditions through its domestic network and the subsea electricity interconnector with Italy.
Every additional unit of competitively priced domestic generation therefore has both security-of-supply and trading implications.
Gvozd 2 remains modest relative to the multi-hundred-megawatt renewable projects proposed elsewhere in Southeast Europe.
But its significance is different.
At 21 MW, the project represents capacity that is actually moving through construction rather than remaining in the development pipeline.
For Montenegro’s electricity balance, completing those projects is becoming more important than announcing new ones.
