In terms of the use of solar energy, Croatia ranks 26th in the EU, it has installed only about 220 megawatts (MW) of photovoltaic systems, but in recent years the situation has been improving, the conference "Solar Energy 2023", organised by the company Energetika marketing, heard on Thursday.

According to the use of solar energy per capita, Croatia is in the 26th place in the European Union, which is by no means a good figure considering the solar potential of the country, said the founder of the Croatian Professional Association for Solar Energy, Ljubomir Majdandzic.

On the other hand, he adds that 208,000 new megawatts of photovoltaic systems were installed last year in the EU countries, of which 66 percent were installed at the point of electricity consumption. Germany, France and Denmark are leading in this.

In the EU countries, the share of coverage of total electricity consumption from photovoltaic systems is seven percent, while in Croatia it is one percent.

If it wants to reach the EU level, it would have to have a thousand megawatts of installed photovoltaic systems, Majdanzic estimates.

Andro Bacan of the Hrvoje Pozar Institute said that Croatia was now on the right track and at the end of 2021, 31.7% of the total energy consumption in Croatia had been secured from the renewables.