Slovenia’s ‘Largest’ Solar Project Enters Construction

• HSE starts construction of its 3 MW solar power plant in Slovenia's Hrastnik region
• It expects the project to cost €2.5 million and complete by the end of 2021
• The company will expand the same to over 16 MW capacity under phase III

State backed power utility Holding Slovenske Elektrarne (HSE) has broken ground on a 3 MW solar PV facility in Slovenia, which it has been calling the country's largest solar power plant. It secured a building permit for the 3.04 MW Prapretno Solar Power Plant in May 2021, hoping to expand it in the future (see Slovenia: 'Largest' Solar Plant Will Have 3 MW Capacity).

The management has now announced it will expand the capacity of this project to exceed 16 MW under phase III by the end of 2023. Construction on phase I with 3 MW capacity will complete by the end of 2021 after which it will be connected to the grid.

The 3 MW capacity is estimated to cost €2.5 million and is the country's 1^st solar power plant with more than 1 MW of capacity to have received a building permit.

Its project's expansion will make use of the non-hazardous waste landfill near Hrastnik where it is coming up and where once the Trbovlje Thermal Power Plant operated. "This project means a new development of the closed area of the former thermal power plant, the production of green hydrogen and a green transition," stated the management.

In June 2021, natural gas electricity supplier GEN-I proposed to install 1 GW new solar power capacity by 2030 in Slovenia (see 1 GW Solar Power Plan Of Slovenian Electricity Supplier).