The Croatian Energy Market Operator (HROTE) has announced a long-awaited round of renewable energy auctions worth €257.2 million. It has allocated the largest quota of 450 MW to solar projects and has set a deadline for awarding the subsidies by the end of the year.
HROTE has announced a renewable energy tender for solar, wind and hydropower projects. It is the second round of auctions since Croatia introduced market incentives to support renewable energy projects in mid-2020.
The country allocated the largest quota of 450 MW to solar projects, in addition to 150 MW to wind farms and 7.25 MW to hydropower projects. This brings the total to 607.25 MW of installations, which is supported by €257.2 million.
The tender will be carried out in two phases. One of these will grant market incentives for projects with an installed capacity of more than 1 MW each, including 350 MW of solar energy, 60 MW of wind energy and 7.25 MW of hydropower. The maximum reference values for premiums per megawatt hour are €67.05 for photovoltaic energy, €75.27 for wind energy and €158.30 for hydropower.
In the other part of the tender procedure, premiums are awarded for solar projects with capacities ranging from 200 kW to 6 MW, and wind farms with capacities from 200 kW to 18 MW. The quota is 100 MW for solar energy and 90 MW for wind energy.
In this part of the tender, the market premium is awarded to all types of projects – both wind and solar energy – between 200 kW and 1 MW. Separately, SMEs, as well as renewable energy communities, PV projects from 200 kW to 6 MW can qualify for the subsidies, in addition to wind projects from 200 kW to 18 MW.
The maximum reference values of market premiums for solar energy are €82.04 and €75.27 for wind energy.
HROTE officially announced the tender on April 12, noting that the public call will last for the next 60 days. After that, the regulatory body plans to initiate the bidding process, which will last for the next 15 days.
In 2022, the first auction for large-scale projects in Croatia took place to purchase 638 MW of new capacity. However, only lukewarm interest was shown, with incentives awarded to only 107 MW of projects. The regulator offered a quota of 300 MW for solar power plants, but only four bids were accepted, for a total capacity of 8 MW.
Small-scale sustainable energy projects were purchased in 2021. The cumulative quota was 88 MW, but incentives were only approved for 25.5 MW of renewable energy projects, including 13.4 MW of solar energy.
HROTE’s original plan was to launch the current round last year and has been under intense pressure to do so ever since. The auction is in line with the new subsidy program to stimulate renewable energy sources and high-efficiency cogeneration with market premiums and feed-in tariffs, according to HROTE. The regulatory body approved it two days before the start of the tender.
Under the program, total subsidies are estimated at €286.6 million. This amount includes a third tender, awarding guaranteed purchase prices for installations with a capacity ranging from 50 kW to 200 kW, to be announced at a later date. The quota is 50 MW for solar energy and 1 MW for hydropower. The deadline for awarding the planned subsidies is December 31.
Croatia added 238.7 MW of solar power in 2023, according to figures from the Renewable Energy Sources of Croatia (RESC), bringing the total to 462.5 MW.
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