According to CEO of WindEurope Giles Dickson, Croatia has significant potential to harness wind but it is not using it sufficiently due to slow bureaucratic procedures.
Dickson said at the wind conference in Dubrovnik that Croatia is at the bottom of the ladder in the EU in terms of efficiency in issuing permits for wind farms. Under Croatian laws, investors must use the technology stated in the original application for a permit while most European countries allow flexibility so technology modernization is possible instead of getting stuck with the technology that was possibly the best five years ago.
Dickson believes that also problematic is the fact that each local government unit in Croatia has its own, separate physical plan, which causes additional problems.
Installed capacity in wind farms in Croatia amounts to around 1 GW and they cover about 11 % of total electricity consumption. It is estimated that in the next five years, Croatia will build an additional 1.4 GW in wind farms, which illustrates Croatia’s huge wind potential.
Grzegorz Zielinski from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) also believes that Croatia should focus more on facilitating wind farm development projects, adding that the private sector should focus on finding good locations, developing projects, obtaining permits and securing financing.
