Croatia rejects green electricity projects of 2.5 GW in total

Croatia has finally begun to clear the mess from excessive number of applications for the construction of renewable power plants. The Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development published a list of projects that did not receive energy approval.

The Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development has announced that it has rejected 33 applications for energy approval for power plants with a total capacity of 2.5 gigawatts (GW).

The ministry’s move comes at a time when investors are largely dissatisfied over long permitting procedures. They submitted 216 applications until February, but the ministry only issued the first energy approval two weeks ago.

Solar projects with a planned overall capacity of 1.5 GW have been rejected

The requests were rejected in line with article 133 of the Law on the Electricity Market, the ministry said.

The group of rejected projected requests consists of 26 solar power plants, five wind farms, one hydropower plant and one cogeneration plant. The ministry said it didn’t accept applications for photovoltaic facilities with a combined capacity of 1,510 MW, wind power plants with 684 MW in total, 150 MW in hydropower projects and 85 MW in cogeneration.

Of note, according to the new Law on the Electricity Market, investors are required to submit applications by January 19. Energy approvals are a necessary step in the development of green energy projects.