Janom Investments bringing knowhow, investments to Western Balkans

Janom Investments is offering its expertise on renewables, energy storage, and innovative energy solutions to Western Balkan countries, and sees an opportunity to act not only as an investor, but also as a mentor to local developers, according to CEO Andrej Sršeň.

Janom Investments is eyeing a portfolio of wind, solar and battery storage projects of more than 1,000 MW in total in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and North Macedonia.

The company, one of the pioneers in the field of climate technology investments in Central and Eastern Europe, participated in Balkan Energy Forum 2024, which gathered  500 participants from 30 countries.

Director of janom Energy and Battery Matej Šanta was a speaker on a panel on accelerating energy storage investments in the region.

The firm entered the Croatian market this year via a solar park project.

Andrej Sršeň said it is a private equity group investing in renewable energy sources, battery storage, and innovative energy solutions.

Over the last two decades, the company has been operating in Central Europe, the Nordics and Finland.

“Therefore, we take BEF 2024 not only as an opportunity to invest into local projects, but also to share our knowledge and address the challenges the sector is facing,” Sršeň stressed.

Conference participants get how important these topics are for their countries

By increasing the share of renewables in the energy mix and developing battery storage capacity, the Western Balkans are doing good things not only for the environment, but also for themselves because they are strengthening energy security, in his view.

At the same time, they are contributing to cheaper energy generation and the creation of modern and exciting jobs while attracting foreign direct investments as investors require clean and local electricity, Sršeň explained.

“We feel that the conference participants get how important these topics are for their countries. So we hope that we can do our part as an investor and mentor of local developers of the projects,” he noted.

Company history began in Slovakia in 2008

The future 30 MW photovoltaic facility in Croatia is the firm’s first-ever investment in the country. It is eyeing other wind and PV projects in Croatia with an estimated overall capacity of over 200 MW, which will require investing an estimated EUR 300 million.

The company has long followed the renewables development potential in Croatia, Sršeň said when the project was announced.

Janom Investments was established in Slovakia in 2008. It operates several solar and hydropower plants in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The company developed wind farms Tyrinselkä and Soidinmäki in Finland, with a combined capacity of 70 MW, and later sold them to Aquila Capital.

It also invests in climate technologies. It is one of the founding investors in Greenway, the largest operator of charging networks for electric vehicles in Poland and Slovakia, with more than 2,500 charging points. The firm has also invested in British company Wattstor, which specializes in solutions for the optimization of energy management and the use of battery storage.