At the beginning of Lider’s ninth conference ‘The Energy Future of Croatia’ held on Friday, July 10, at the Zagreb Fair, the Minister of Environmental Protection and Energy, Tomislav Ćorić pointed out that our future is in renewable energy sources. He went on to say “In the next 10, 20 and 30 years Croatia will aspire toward the production of renewable energy sources. We will strive to increase the production of energy from the sun, wind, geothermal resources, bio-gas and in part hydro energy. In addition, the model on which this is to be achieved has changed, actually the legislative framework which will provide for a market premium model that is more just as producers will compete among themselves, while on the other hand the state will ensure the security of their projects”. He announced the launching of tenders by the end of the year that will affirm the model of energy production from small capacity pants, biomass, bio-gas while at the beginning of next year the Government will announce premium tenders for higher capacity sun and wind energy production.
What are the chances of 4.0 energy was the question posed to the participants of the panel ‘What Kind of Transition Do We Need for Clean and Accessible Energy”. The participants of the Round Table included Suada Mustajbegovič (FZOEU), Maja Pokrovac (RESC), Ivica Jakić, (Croatian Association for the Development and Application of Hydrogen Fuel Cells), Petar Sprčić (HEP) and Jure Botica (Siemens Energy). Maja Pokrivac, the director of RESC, referred to the financial aspect and pointed out that funds do exist but we need to know how to use them. “We have 750 billion EUR from the Next Generation Recovery Fund and we are entering the next financial perspective 2021 -2027. Therefore the means are there and it’s all up to us. We cannot deliberate for too long but rather focus on concrete projects, on all that Croatia needs”, Pokrovac reiterated. She also spoke of energy independent entrepreneurship zones, production at the site of consumption. “Energy must become a good that is available to all citizens”, Pokrovac pointed out.
Ivan Komušanac, analyst from the Association WindEurope gave a presentation on experiences with the premium tenders in Europe as well as an introduction to the second round table on the premium model on the basis of which, as he pointed out, the renewable enerygy sources investment potential is opening up.
The participants of the discussion that followed included Domagoj Validžić, (MZOE), Ozren Fučak (HROTE), Dragutin Domitrović, (Calida Aqua), Aljoša Pleić (Acciona energija), Ante Merčep (Aureus solis) and Zoran Kordić (ZEZ). Dragutin Domitrović, owner and director of the consulting firm Calida Aqua complained that investments in geothermal energy sources have stalled, among other, due to various procedures that have to be adhered to before the investment can be initiated, and requiring of investors to spend between 2.5 and 7 million EUR to that end which diverts them from the very beginning from the endeavour.
Nevertheless, the fact that tenders were announced in early June for four exploration areas is encouraging with hopes that the criteria will be alleviated so that other investors would come to Croatia.
“In the course of building a geothermal power plant 85 percent of the money remains to the domestic companies participating in the investment which is quite stimulating for us”, Domitrović pointed out.
Aljoša Pleić, the director of Acciona energy for Croatia emphasized that fewer barriers exist today than ten years ago and that considerable progress has been made.
Ante Merčep, the director of development in the company Aureus solis, said that we needed the premium system but warned that the actual problems were the costs of capital and issuing of permits, including connection to the grid. He suggested that investors should be given the opportunity to partake in the development of legislation since they are well acquainted with the actual problems that appear in the course of investments.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Energy was the sponsor of the Conference, Siemens Energy the general sponsor and HEP the golden sponsor. Other sponsors of the Conference included GEN-I, Ina, Renewable Energy Sources of Croatia and PPD while the Fund for Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency was its partner.
You can view the Conference on Lider’s You tube channel:
More on the conference can be found here:
