Croatia launches auctions for renewable energy utility-scale power plants

The Croatian Energy Market Operator (HROTE) has announced a public call for granting premiums for solar power plants, wind farms, geothermal, biogas, and biomass power plants, as well as hydropower plants. It is the first auction for utility-scale renewable power plants in Croatia.

The deadline for submitting bids for the award of premiums is July 4, the public call reads.

Two months ago HROTE published rules and procedures for granting premiums, giving potential participants time to prepare.

The quota was increased in the meantime from 630 MW to 638 MW by allowing premiums for biogas power plants with an installed capacity of 16 MW.

Here are the available quotas:

• For solar power plants of at least 500 kW – 300 MW
• For wind farms of at least 3 MW – 300 MW
• For biogas facilities from 500 kW up to and including 2 MW – 16 MW
• For geothermal power plants of at least 500 kW – 10 MW
• For biomass power plants from 500 kW up to and including 5 MW – 8 MW
• For hydropower plants from 500 kW up to and including 10 MW – 4 MW.

The public call lists the maximum reference values ​​of premiums per MWh:

• Solar power plants – HRK 495.63 (EUR 65.47)
• Wind farms – HRK 460.91 (EUR 60.88)
• Geothermal power plants – HRK 1,263.96 (EUR 167.95)
• Biomass power plants – HRK 1,411.57 (EUR 186.45)
• Biogas power plants – HRK 1,482.23 (EUR 195.78)
• Hydropower plants – HRK 1,095.58 (EUR 144.71).

Of note, auctions were introduced in Croatia in mid-2020 as a new model of subsidizing green energy, and the first one for small projects was held in early 2021.

The country recently announced another round of auctions with a total quota of 2,010 MW.

Experts estimate the auctions could attract investments of EUR 1 billion this year alone.