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Maja Pokrovac, managing director of the Croatian Renewable Energy Economy and Interests (RES Croatia) Association, said the Croatian government has developed a National Recovery and Sustainability Plan without consulting the scientific community, the private sector, financial institutions and non-governmental organizations.

“Agriculture and the renewable energy industry must join forces, not compete for incentives and available land,” she said. "It is necessary to provide grants through public appeals to farms for the installation of solar and biogas power plants."

Solar power plants with a total peak capacity of 800 MW could be installed on farms, in which case another 100 MW would be required for balancing on flexible biogas plants, said Maya Pokrovac.

The calculation was made on the basis of a “minimalist assumption” of 5 kW of PV power per farm, which corresponds to an investment potential of € 600 million. “Solar power of this size can only be covered by 200 biogas plants with an average capacity of 500 kW,” says Maya Pokrovac. “There are 3,000 corresponding farms in Croatia.”

Croatia has now built 45 MW biogas plants. The advantage of introducing renewable energy sources in agriculture is that energy is consumed where it is produced, said the head of renewable energy sources in Croatia.

“According to the current projects in the field of renewable energy sources in the country, by 2030 the power system will need 7 GW, but the planned investments are not enough for this,” warned Maya Pokrovats. “The government needs to speed up the work of the administrative system in the segment of renewable energy sources”.

She criticized the National Recovery and Resilience Plan for not including an assessment of funds that could be mobilized from the private sector, as Greece did.

“The grants section for the first two years is 8% of Croatia's gross domestic product for 2019, which puts it at the top of the list of EU member states,” said Maya Pokrovac. “The mechanism will provide a total of € 6.3 billion in grants and another € 3.6 billion in loans.”

The Managing Director of the Association for Economics and Renewable Energy Interests highlighted that the plan for energy investments is 660 million euros, with 1.1 billion euros expected by the end of the decade.

Earlier ElectroVesti wrote that scientists from the United States identified technological innovations that are ready for use today, which can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture in the next 15 years and at the same time fit into the existing production system and the grain market. Among the main ones are GMOs, digitalization and electrification, as well as creating conditions for the absorption of carbon dioxide by the soil.