Slovenia to use railway land for solar panels for households in multiapartment buildings

In addition to locations alongside highways, Slovenia intends to use land owned by state-owned railway company Slovenske Železnice for solar power plants.

Photovoltaic facilities on land owned by Slovenske Železnice would produce electricity for community self-supply for households.

The Government of Slovenia proposed to the Slovenian Sovereign Holding (SSH or SDH) to invite Slovenske Železnice and its subsidiaries to prepare and implement a public call.

Government-controlled SDH manages state-owned companies including Slovenske Železnice.

Slovenske Železnice should submit a list of additional locations for installing solar power plants

The government also proposed to SDH to invite Slovenske Železnice to send to the Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Energy and Ministry of Infrastructure a list of additional locations that can be declared priority areas for the construction of PV facilities for the community self-supply for households by the end of 2024.

Community self-supply is a model of electricity production from renewable energy sources for partial or complete supply of final consumers in multiapartment buildings and energy communities.

According to the government, the establishment of such a scheme is a tool to implement the strategic goals for self-​supply with low-carbon electricity, determined by the Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan.

Priority locations for PV systems are designated under the Law on the Introduction of Devices for the Production of Electricity from Renewable Energy Sources.

Government: PV plants to be installed by the end of 2025

Slovenske Železnice has potentially suitable lots at hand, so the government suggested to the company to conduct the procedures for allocating them to a contractor that would implement community self-supply projects for households.

In the selection process, Slovenske Železnice and its subsidiaries should give priority to companies that would plan at least 80% of production to households as well as ones that prioritize energy-poor households, multiapartment buildings and citizens that were refused permits to install solar power plants for self-supply, according to the announcement.

The government added that power plants on the land of Slovenske Železnice should be installed through 2025.

Of note, Slovenia’s state-owned hydropower operator Soške Elektrarne Nova Gorica (SENG) and road management firm Družba za Avtoceste v Republiki Sloveniji (DARS) announced a plan a year ago to build solar power plants along highways.