The Croatian City of Vukovar has announced 12 solar power plants it is building with a combined capacity of 801.9 kW will now have 85.09% of their total investment of HRK 5.8 million covered by a grant backed by the European Union (EU).
These 12 solar projects, to be completed within 2 years, are being built under Sun over Vukover project and will be installed at public buildings, kindergarten and elementary schools, Vukover City Market, Vukover City Administration, sports facility, and Vukover Swimming Pool.
Largest of these projects has 350 kW capacity and will be installed for the Vukover Swimming Pool facility. "When we install a solar power plant at the Vukovar Swimming Pool, the City of Vukovar will save around 200,000 kuna of electricity at the old prices, and half a million kuna at the new prices. The cost-effectiveness of the project only for Vukovar's pools is less than one year," explained the local administration.
Vukover expects a return on this investment on solar power capacity within a year. It had applied for the grant responding to a call by the Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds (MRREFU). Grant will be disbursed through a financial mechanism created under an agreement between the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
All of these projects are being implemented by the city in cooperation with Norway's Energy Farm International Foundation.
Distributed generation is moving forward in Croatia alongside large scale solar. In April 2022, a local Croatian company El Sun Energy proposed to develop a 950.9 MW solar project in response to a public tender (see 950 MW Solar Project Proposed For Croatia).