Petrol is building its first wind park in region without feed in for production of energy from RES

Petrol's new wind park is growing in Croatia, which will provide "green sustainable energy" for 20,000 average households. 9 windmills will produce about 96 GWh of electricity on an annual basis. The start of the wind park is planned in early April of the following year.

Wind will become the main source of electrical energy in Europe by 2030. Wind energy is representing a field, where technologies for efficient usage of renewable sources are developing extremely quickly. "The global energy system is witnessing an advanced development, influenced by the increased energy demand as well as by environmental requirements. At Petrol, we are following these objectives through the production of electricity from renewable sources – wind, water and sun. Petrol decided to become a modern energy company, therefore the renewables have a specific strategic position at Petrol's, especially the production of energy from renewables, which represents one of the key activities for the future development of the Petrol group,” stated Jože Bajuk, Board member of Petrol, responsible for the Energy and Solutions pillar. At Petrol we plan, build and manage wind parks, taking into consideration appropriate locations, where the utilization of wind potential is possible without harming the environment. Therefore, in Croatia, near Knin, we are building a wind powerplant Ljubač, which is including 9 wind turbines. "Over the last few years, the European legislative framework has put in place excellent conditions for the promotion of renewable resources, and we are therefore pleased that we too at Petrol can contribute to the common social objectives of the transition to a low-carbon society," added Bajuk.

Global trends in the world are encouraging the exploitation of renewable energy sources for production of electrical energy. Renewables contribute to both the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and diversification of energy supply. At Petrol, we focus on the first, so we are intensively developing and investing in the production of electricity from wind, solar and little hydropower plants. At the end of 2019 we signed a contract for the construction of wind power plants in Croatia with Nordex, in capacity of 30 MW. The expected annual energy production of 9 windmills is 96 GWh, which is sufficient to reach 20,000 average household customers. "Project Ljubač represents the first project of company Petrol in the field of production of wind energy, which will be delievered withhout additional feed ins and subventions. In this way our customers will have at disposal clean and sustainable energy, without additional burdening of state budget or final customers," said Suvad Bajrić, director of renewable electricity production at Petrol.

In recent years, the European legislative framework has put in place excellent conditions for the promotion of renewable resources, and we are pleased that we too can contribute to the common social objectives of the transition to a low-carbon society. "One of bigger challenges of the project was to coordinate all processes in the region during the pandemic in time, but we succeeded with excellent partnership cooperation," concluded Suvad Bajrić. 

Construction work began in the spring of this year. Currently, turbines are already being installed, and the start of the turbines is planned in the beginning of April next year. "The Petrol Group has realized or is realizing 200 MW worth of wind and solar energy projects to provide clean energy for an additional 100,000 average households," adds Bajrić.