Croatia allocates 413.5 MW of PV in reneweables auction

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The Croatian Energy Market Operator (HROTE) has announced the final results of the renewable energy auction it launched in April.

The procurement exercise was the second round of auctions since Croatia introduced market premiums to support renewable energy projects in mid-2020. It was open to PV, wind and hydropower projects and was expected to allocate 607 MW of capacity.

The HROTE allocated 413.5 MW of PV capacity and 4.5 MW of hydropower capacity in the procurement exercise, with no wind power project being selected.

The final average price for the PV technology came in at €0.056 ($0.065)/kWh, while the average price for hydropower was €0.158/kWh. The Croatian authorities initially reviewed 144 projects totaling 713 MW for the auction.

The tender was carried out in two phases. One awarded market premiums for projects with installed capacities of more than 1 MW each, including 350 MW of solar, 60 MW of wind, and 7.25 MW of hydropower. The maximum reference values for premiums were €0.067/kWh for photovoltaics, €0.75/kWh for wind, and €0.158/kWh for hydropower.

The other part of the tender procedure awarded premiums 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 was 100 MW for solar and 90 MW for wind.

In this part of the tender, the market premium was awarded to all types of projects – both wind and solar – between 200 kW and 1 MW. Separately, small- and medium-sized enterprises, as well as renewable energy communities, could qualify PV projects from 200 kW up to 6 MW for the subsidies, in addition to wind projects ranging from 200 kW to up to 18 MW. The maximum reference values of market premiums for solar were €0.82/kWh and €0.75/kWh for wind.

The first auction for large-scale projects in Croatia took place in 2022 to procure 638 MW of new capacity. However, it only attracted tepid interest, with premiums awarded to just 107 MW of projects. The regulator offered a 300 MW quota for solar plants, but only four bids were accepted, for a total capacity of 8 MW.

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