Ivo Dubravcic joined the Hive team in 2022 to establish Hive’s presence in Croatia. Since then, Ivo has been working on a pipeline of greenfield sites to develop photovoltaic projects in the region and support Croatia’s green energy transition.
2024 is off to a great start in Croatia as we secure land on three new sites, that Ivo has been working on since spring last year.
Securing land for solar developments
The three sites that have been secured are all private land.
Two of which are expected to have all permits in place by the end of 2024, while the third requires a spatial plan insertion.
All three of the projects are located in the continental region of Croatia and Ivo is currently in the process of signing connection agreements. The projects, which are 6 MW, 50 MW, and 9.99 MW, are located in Sisak-moslavina and Bjelovar-bilogora county.
The 6 MW project is an Agri-PV site, which will be an interesting and unusual project to develop. It will give us a deeper understanding of the Agri-PV process since this site will be one of the first of its kind in Croatia.
As well as the projects mentioned above, we are working to secure additional sites that will bolster our Croatian pipeline. We hope to have more news to share from the country in coming months. We are also in the final phase of preparing for the Energy Approval process, with additional sites located on state owned land.
How these projects will support Croatia’s green energy transition
Croatia is already running on around 1/3 renewable sources, primarily from extensive hydropower plants.
The country is aiming to further grow that figure and cut emissions by around 45% by 2030. While the country is improving on its renewable energy sources, wind and solar are still on the backfoot. Around 11% of Croatia’s fuel was from wind sources in 2021 and less than 2% originated from solar, leaving a large gap in the market for PV development.
While Croatia is currently behind on solar installation, the growth in 2023 was vast. Croatia’s solar capacity grew almost 50% from 224 MW to 305 MW in the first six months of 2023. With such a limited capacity currently in situ in the region, Hive’s projects will massively support the green transition and growth of photovoltaic development across the country.
