Golob: Slovenia must define its own vision for electricity supply by 2040

Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob and Minister of Environment, Climate, and Energy Bojan Kumer have hosted a meeting with prominent energy experts to discuss the development of Slovenia’s energy sector.

The meeting marks the beginning of expert consultations titled Vision 2040 – Supplying Slovenia with electricity, initiated by the Government of Slovenia.

The last few months have been turbulent for the country’s energy sector. Due to financial difficulties, the shutdown of the only coal-fired power plant—Šoštanj (TEŠ)—is being accelerated and may easily take place before the scheduled 2033. The construction of the Krško 2 nuclear power plant was the main option to ensure sufficient electricity, but the planned referendum on the project was suddenly canceled.

Slovenia aims to decide by 2028 whether to build its second nuclear power plant, according to its updated National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP), which the government adopted just a month ago.

Professors, entrepreneurs, managers

The meeting organized by the Slovenian prime minister was attended by representatives of private and state companies, faculties, institutes, chambers of commerce, and the non-governmental sector.

The private sector was represented by Roman Bernard, NGEN’s co-founder and CEO. The company is a pioneering provider of digitalized energy storage and management solutions. Also attending the meeting were Žiga Zaplotnik, a professor at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics in Ljubljana, Dušan Plut, a geographer from the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SAZU), and Stane Merše of the Jožef Stefan Institute.

The state-owned energy utilities were represented by Dejan Paravan, GEN’s CEO, Aleksander Mervar, general manager of transmission system operator ELES, and Tomaž Štokelj, general manager of Holding Slovenske Elektrarne (HSE).

The meeting was also attended by engineer Vekoslav Korošec from the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce (GZS) and Jonas Sonnenschein, deputy director of the non-governmental organization Umanotera – the Slovenian Foundation for Sustainable Development.

The key goal is full decarbonization by 2050

The purpose of this first round of consultations was to encourage a dialogue between experts and decision-makers and to identify priorities in the energy sector for the future, with an emphasis on possible scenarios for the supply of electricity and key measures for the decarbonization of the electricity sector by 2040, according to the government.

Prime Minister Robert Golob noted that development is probably the fastest in the clean energy technologies sector. “That’s why it’s important that we have our own vision on these issues and that we can make decisions based on broad consultations,” he said.

Through a series of discussions, in his words, the government intends to hear different views and jointly shape a vision for electricity supply. The key goal is to completely decarbonize Slovenia’s society by 2050, Golob stressed.

Slovenia’s solution must include a combination of technologies that will give the best results in achieving environmental, social, and economic goals, according to the prime minister.