Croatia’s first energy community is now operational. The community utilizes a rooftop solar plant on the building of the volunteer fire brigade in Špičkovina, a settlement near Zabok in the county of Krapina-Zagorje, northern Croatia.

The project, implemented by the North-West Croatia Regional Energy and Climate Agency (REGEA), features a rooftop solar array currently 32 kW in size, with plans to double the capacity to 64 kW.

The community has 17 members in total, consisting of volunteer firefighters, local residents, one micro-enterprise and the voluntary fire department itself, named DVD Špičkovina.

Ivana Belić, Head of Strategic Communications at REGEA, explained to pv magazine the community operates on an energy-sharing model, without on-site storage, that differs from conventional self-consumption.

“The electricity is not consumed behind a single meter. Instead, the output of the plant is distributed through the public grid to the metering points of the community members, according to a fixed allocation key,” Belić explained. “Each member’s share is credited against the consumption recorded at that member’s own metering point. Members expect their electricity bills to fall substantially, by roughly half.”

The City of Zabok co-financed around half of the investment, while the members financed the other half, which Belić says halved each member’s own outlay. She added that the purpose of the energy community is to benefit the community rather than generate commercial profit.

“Membership is open and voluntary, and the members keep control of the organisation,” Belić said. “A volunteer fire brigade is a natural host for this model. In Croatia, volunteer fire brigades are long-standing local institutions with a public role and a building that serves the whole settlement. The value created by the solar plant stays in the local community.”

Energy sharing is the newest part of Croatia’s energy legislation, with Croatia’s distribution system operator, HEP ODS, introducing the mechanism at the start of April this year. 

The Renewable Energy Sources of Croatia (RES Croatia) told pv magazine the move marked the most important prerequisite for energy communities to become operational. “However, there are still several administrative barriers that need to be simplified, and we expect further regulatory improvements in the near future,” the association said.

There are currently three energy communities officially registered in Croatia, RES Croatia added, with the Špičkovina community the first to begin operations.

“We certainly expect this segment to grow. According to the latest public opinion survey, 71% of Croatian citizens would like to produce electricity together with their neighbours, for example through a shared rooftop solar installation,” the association told pv magazine. “In addition, the Croatian Energy Regulatory Agency has recently launched a public consultation on a new regulatory framework aimed at supporting citizen energy initiatives.”

Belić added that the experience gained from the Špičkovina energy community, from the registration of the community to the grid procedures and allocation of shared electricity, is directly useable by other Croatian communities.

“The importance of Špičkovina is not its size,” Belić said. “It proves that energy sharing works under Croatian rules, and it gives other communities a tested path to follow.”

Croatia’s cumulative solar capacity passed the 1 GW threshold last year before reaching over 1.2 GW by the end of year.

Earlier this year, Slovakia announced plans to develop energy communities. Elsewhere in the EU, Spain is accelerating the rollout of such communities while Italian energy communities are now generating over 300 MW of power.