Andrej Plenković, the Prime Minister of the Croatian government visited the construction site of Wind Farm Korlat near Benkovac. Connection capacity of the wind farm amounts to 58 MW, which is higher than the capacity of currently the biggest operational wind power plant in Croatia. Expected annual generation of around 170 GWh, which makes up 1 percent of the annual electricity consumption in Croatia, will be sufficient for the supply of more than 50,000 households. The total value of the investment is more than HRK 500 million.
“This is the signal that HEP, as the strongest and the most important power utility has a good understanding of the context of new energy development strategy, currently in preparation. Therefore, launching construction works on Korlat Wind Farm is important for the supply of electricity to 50,000 households, but also for following global and ecological trends in energy development”, said Andrej Plenković, the Prime Minister of the Croatian Government.
Korlat Wind Farm is being constructed at the location carrying the same name, 8 kilometers north-west of the town of Benkovac, on the area of three cadastral municipalities – Kula Atlagić, Korlat and Biljani Gornji. The wind farm will have 18 wind turbines, each with installed capacity of 3.6 MW. Wind turbine pillars are 114 meters high and the diameter of the rotor is 131 meters. Wind turbines will be delivered, constructed and put into operation by the German company Nordex. Croatian companies, Ing-Grad and Fractal, will construct the infrastructure and grid connection of Korlat Wind Farm as well as monitor and supervise the construction. The wind farm is planned to be put into regular operation in August 2020.
Korlat Wind Farm does not have the status of eligible producer, i.e. it does not have the contract with the Croatian Energy Market Operator (HROTE). That is going to be the first new wind power plant in Croatia, which will generate electricity without guaranteed purchase at incentive price. This means that HEP is not going to get the financial means for Korlat Wind Farm, which are collected from customers through the fee for stimulating generation from renewable energy sources. Market prices of electricity were used to determine the cost-effectiveness of the investment for HEP.
“We are preparing more wind power plant projects, which are being developed as part of the renewable scenario of development as at 2030. In that period, we are going to increase the total generation capacities by 1,500 MW, almost a half of which in form of wind power plants and solar power plants”, said Frane Barbarić, the President of HEP’s Management Board.
By 2030 HEP is planning to have 350 MW in wind power plants and the same amount in solar power plants, which together corresponds to the capacity of Nuclear Power Plant Krško. One solar power plant being considered within that plan is the power plant that would be constructed next to Korlat Wind Farm. Estimated connection capacity of SPP Korlat is around 75 MW. This way, Korlat would become the unique location for green energy generation in Croatia and beyond, because of its total installed capacity of power plants using renewable energy sources. Estimated value of the investment is around HRK 480 million.
Regarding HEP’s current solar power plant projects, SPP Vis is being constructed, and the construction of SPP Cres and SPP Vrlika Jug is about to start soon. The realization of the renewable scenario of development by 2030 will result in the 50-percent increase of renewable energy sources’ share in HEP’s generation portfolio as well as in the increase of generation from renewable sources from 6 to 9 billion kWh annually.
