Croatia has adopted renewable auctions in a bid to increase the share of renewables in its power mix, says GlobalData. The leading data and analytics company notes that these auctions are expected to help increase the country’s installed renewable power capacity (excluding hydropower) from 1 GW in 2020 to 3.2 GW in 2030, growing at a remarkable compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12%.

Rohit Ravetkar, Power Analyst at GlobalData, says: “Implementing renewable auctions is a positive step for Croatia’s renewable sector, largely because it will help achieve grid parity. The government aims to assign 2.26 GW of renewable power capacity through the auction mechanism. In February 2021, the government announced a second renewable auction for 400 MW of renewable capacity, which is expected to be conducted by the end of 2021.”

According to GlobalData’s latest report, ‘Croatia Power Market Outlook to 2030, Update 2021 – Market Trends, Regulations, and Competitive Landscape’, the Croatian Government intends to increase the share of renewables in its power mix. The current mix is 798 MW of wind power and 85 MW of solar PV capacities, and the government is targeting 1.36 GW of wind and 0.77 GW of solar by 2030.

Ravetkar continues: “Croatia will comfortably meet the targets in its National Energy and Climate plan as wind power and solar PV capacities are expected to reach 1.78 GW and 1.18 GW respectively by 2030.”

Croatia has huge potential for renewable power, especially solar and wind. In fact, Croatia’s solar PV project pipeline will witness substantial growth this decade as solar technology is expected to continue to take a large share in upcoming tenders.

Ravetkar adds: “The setback with solar projects is that they require a large area of land. The installation of 1 MW solar PV plant requires four to five hectares of land, which is difficult to manage in a small country such as Croatia. One solution is installing floating solar PV plants in the Adriatic Sea to avoid land utilization by utility scale solar PV projects.”