The Croatian Employers’ Association – Association of Small and Medium-Sized Entrepreneurs recently organised a working lunch with Radimir Čačić, the government first Vice-President and Minister of Economy in order to discuss the government initiative regarding the new investment cycle in the country. Čačić stated that the state had recently purchased the project documentation for the LNG project on the island of Krk from private investors for €1.3 million. The consortium, which comprises German E.ON, French Total, Austrian OMV and Slovenian Geoplin, began the project in 2006. Nevertheless, project implementation was constantly postponed due to shrinking gas demand.

The state is currently planning to construct a huge onshore LNG terminal on the island of Krk by 2016. Regarding energy projects, Čačić explained that Croatia would not pay for costly solar energy, 8 to 9 times more expensive than energy generated by oil and gas. Croatia cannot afford huge solar panel arrays, but will encourage the construction of small solar roof panels.

Source: PVInternational