• HESS is planning to build a 6 MW solar power plant near its Brežice hydropower plant making it a hybrid power project
  • It will come up alongside the reservoir of this hydropower plant and start commercial operations in H1/2022
  • HESS says the project will be the 1st to be connected to the 110kV transmission network

Slovenia is planning a 6 MW solar power plant as the country’s ‘largest’ such facility, according to hydroelectric utility Hidroelektrarne na spodnji Savi (HESS) that wants to bring it up alongside the reservoir of its Brežice hydropower plant. This follows the company’s earlier tryst with solar power in the form of a rooftop solar system installed on the HESS office building in March 2020.

The project will be located on 6-hectare space on a landfill area on the right bank of Sava River, and will be connected to the existing hydroelectric power plant making it a hybrid power system that’s ‘never been seen in Slovenia before’. Hydropower will step in during night time when the sun doesn’t shine for solar panels to generate power.

HESS says this ‘carefully thought out’ hybrid system is the first solar power plant in the country which will transmit electricity to the 110 kV transmission network. So far, the country has had power plant connected to the 20 kV network as a rule.

According to HESS, the solar project is planned to start commercial operations in H1/2022. The solar project can easily be relocated if required since it will be prefabricated.

To fund this project whose cost is estimated to be close to €4.3 million, HESS plans to raise funds from the European Union’s Cohesion Fund.