Croatian state-owned power utility HEP is preparing to develop a large-scale solar power plant in the Crno area near Zadar. The planned location is situated on the edge of the city’s urban zone, within the Crno Business Zone, and was selected to minimize visual impact on nearby residential areas.
The project site spans around 93 hectares of karst terrain, characterized mainly by low shrub vegetation. Design solutions aim to ensure that the facility remains largely concealed from the village of Crno, despite its substantial footprint. The solar plant would comprise approximately 139,800 photovoltaic modules, supplied by Canadian Solar.
Once operational, the facility is expected to generate about 119.8 GWh of electricity annually. This output would be sufficient to supply tens of thousands of households, making a meaningful contribution to Croatia’s renewable energy mix. With an installed capacity of 90.87 MW, the project would be comparable in both size and capacity to HEP’s largest solar project to date, the Korlat solar power plant.
The Korlat project, currently under construction by a Chinese consortium, is scheduled to enter operation later this year. In parallel, HEP has eight additional renewable energy projects at an advanced stage of development, including the planned 45 MW solar power plant in Sukošan.
The broader Crno–Zadar area has already attracted strong interest from solar developers. Within a ten-kilometer radius of the planned site, a total of 11 solar projects have either completed or are undergoing permitting procedures, covering a combined area of approximately 483 hectares. However, none of these projects have yet been built, highlighting the early stage of solar deployment in the area despite strong development interest.