Spanish energy developer Acciona Energía has been awarded a 12-year contract for difference (CfD) to develop the 189MW Promina solar PV project, currently under construction in Croatia.
The company is building the project in Sibenik-Knin county, in southern Croatia, and will be the country’s largest solar project by capacity upon commissioning in 2027. The CfD was awarded by the country’s energy market operator, Hrvatski Operator Trzista Energije (HROTE), and approved by the European Commission as the EU looks to accelerate the development of renewable power deployment across Europe.
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As part of the agreement, Acciona Energía will build a new 400kV interconnection substation at the site, to connect the facility to the Croatian grid. The company is also building 72MW of new wind capacity, and upon completion of these projects, in addition to the Promina facility, Acciona Energía will account for around 8% of Croatia’s installed clean energy capacity.
Earlier this year, state secretary in the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development Ivo Milatić said that he expects the country to add 1.2GW of new solar and wind capacity by the end of this year, and to install up to 800MW of new capacity annually in the coming years, as Croatia looks to reach its 2030 goal of installing 3.5GW of operating renewable power capacity.
Solar power, in particular, has been a key part of this transition. Croatia has expanded its installed solar capacity from 55MW in 2018 to 700MW as of March of this year. The country’s electricity generation mix has historically relied considerably on renewable technologies—the International Energy Agency (IEA) reports that hydropower alone accounted for 47.5% of the Croatian electricity generation mix as of 2021—and Acciona Energía’s work in the country will only accelerate this transition.
The news follows HROTE’s launch of a renewables auction for 450MW of PV capacity earlier this year. This auction looked to finance new small-scale installations, which make up the majority of the Croatian solar sector; Milatić has said that, of the country’s total installed solar capacity, rooftop installations account for around 600MW.
This is also Acciona Energía’s latest investment in the global solar sector, following its support of a number of projects outside of its home country. Last December, the company announced plans to begin construction on a 380MW solar plant in Australia, and earlier this year, it commissioned its largest solar project by capacity, the 458MW Red-Tailed Hawk project in the US.
