Croatia’s national power company Hrvatska elektroprivreda (HEP) has started construction of a 58MW wind project, the largest renewable energy plant of its kind in the country.
Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic visited the construction site of the Korlat wind farm near Benkovac, which is scheduled for commissioning in August 2020.
The wind farm will comprise 18 3.6MW Nordex turbines and extends over the territory of three cadastral municipalities, Atlagic Tower, Korlat and Biljani Gornji.
Nordex will also build and commission the project while Croatian companies Ing-Grad and Fractal will construct the grid connection infrastructure. The plant is scheduled to be commissioned in August 2020.
Korlat’s annual production, estimated at 170 gigawatt hours, accounts for 1% of Croatia’s annual electricity consumption.
Plenkovic said: “This is a signal that HEP, as the most powerful and important energy company, understands the context of the new energy development strategy under preparation.”
Korlat will be the first new wind farm in Croatia to produce electricity without guaranteed purchase at an incentive price. The return on investment for HEP was determined according to electricity wholesale market prices.
HEP chief executive Frane Barbaric said: “We have several other wind farm projects in the pipeline, which we are developing as part of a renewable development scenario by 2030. During this period, we will increase our total production capacity by 1500MW, of which almost half will be in wind and solar power plants.”