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Factors Guiding the Development of Photovoltaics Usage in Croatia

The PV industry is the fastest growing renewables industry in the world. However, that trend seems to bypass Croatia, the country with one of the highest average solar radiations in Europe. The reasons for the slow introduction of PVs in Croatia are multiple, and they vary from legislative barriers to financial incapability to support this rather expensive technology. In 2007 new legislature for renewables was set, including feed in tariffs for PVs. However, the support for PVs is at the moment limited to a total of 1 MWp installed capacity. This limit seems rather low compared to some countries, such as Spain and Germany, where already installed capacity is few hundred megawatts. Nevertheless, taking into account Croatian limited financial resources 1MWp limit seems to be reasonable to some extent. The new Energy Strategy sets ambitious targets for utilisation of solar energy, and for realisation of those targets some changes in legislation will have to be made. With the new legislation, and likelihood that additional changes and simplification will be made as response to requirements of EU acquis and new Croatian Energy Strategy, it can be concluded that the PVs and other solar applications will have brighter future under Croatian sun.

Photovoltaic energy; solar potential; policy barriers; Croatia

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