Renewables

Croatia to take loan to pay incentives for renewable energy producers

Croatia to take loan to pay incentives for renewable energy producers

Photo: keepwakin from Pixabay

Published

September 6, 2021

Country

Comments

comments icon

0

Share

Published:

September 6, 2021

Country:

Comments:

comments icon

0

Share

Croatian energy market operator HROTE will take a EUR 13.3 million loan to pay renewable energy power plants subsidies.

HROTE’s revenue this year will be EUR 45.3 million lower than planned. By the end of the year, it will need EUR 22.6 million to meet all obligations under the contracts with privileged power producers, the Government of Croatia said.

HROTE is the state-owned company in charge of the system of incentives for producing electricity from renewable sources. It offtakes all the electricity from privileged power producers, which produce it in renewable power plants and highly efficient cogeneration.

One of the main reasons for the drop in turnover is the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the electricity market, the government said.

Croatian media reported HROTE’s financial woes to demonstrate serious issues in the system’s functioning for incentivizing green energy. Of note, Croatia has introduced auctions for the allocation of incentives. The first was held in January, and a new auction was announced for autumn.

Green energy subsidies are based on a fee paid by consumers

The system of incentives for renewable energy sources in Croatia is primarily based on the fee for renewable energy sources and highly efficient cogeneration that is collected from all electricity consumers. The fee currently amounts to EUR 0.014 per kWh, but it has been reduced as a form of state aid for certain categories of consumers from the business sector.

HROTE sells 60% of electricity received from privileged power producers on the electricity exchange and 40% at a guaranteed purchase price of about EUR 0.056 per kWh to suppliers.

Energy consumption reduced by 6%

According to the government’s decision on the HROTE loan, due to the consequences of the pandemic year 2020 on electricity markets, HROTE is seen with a EUR 45.4 million lower revenue than planned.

The drop in revenues was mostly caused by the drop in electricity consumption in Croatia of about 6% compared to 2019. According to the decision, it was also the result of the 30% decrease in electricity prices on the market.

An additional aggravating circumstance is that in 2020, the implementation of the regulation on reducing the fee for the “energy-intensive economy” began, which reduced HROTE’s revenues by EUR 8 million.

Comments (0)

Be the first one to comment on this article.

Enter Your Comment
Please wait... Please fill in the required fields. There seems to be an error, please refresh the page and try again. Your comment has been sent.

Related Articles

montenegro eu investment conference milojko spajic green data centers

Spajić: Montenegro wants to be country of green data centers

17 October 2025 - Milojko Spajić was one of the speakers at the keynote panel within the European Union – Montenegro Investment Conference

Montenegro’s EPCG to develop floating solar, thermal batteries, high-altitude wind turbines

16 October 2025 - Memoranda of understanding (MoUs) were signed within the framework of the European Union – Montenegro Investment Conference

First floating solar power plant with vertical panels commissioned

World’s first floating solar power plant with vertical panels comes online

16 October 2025 - A floating solar power plant with vertically mounted panels has been put into operation on an artificial lake in Germany

slano solar power plants epcg

Montenegro building two solar plants at hydropower dams

15 October 2025 - The total installed capacity of the Slano and Vrtac solar power plants will be 3.7 MW