STA, 20 July 2020 - A wind farm with a rated capacity of 21.6 megawatts is to be built on a mountain ridge near the border with Croatia, under plans recently endorsed by the Slovenian government.
The government took the decision on 8 July on the implementation of a national zoning plan for six wind turbines on the Maceljska Gora ridge in the area of Rogatec.
The farm is to be built by Dravske Elektrarne Maribor, a subsidiary of the state-owned power group HSE. The type of the production units is yet to be determined but the investor plans technologically advanced units both environment- and efficiency-wise.
The government says the project will contribute to increasing the output from renewables, self-sufficiency of electricity supply and greater diversification and dispersal of energy production sources, all of which is in line with the country's energy policy principles.
The six wind turbines, each with a rated capacity of up to 3.6 megawatts, or a combined 21.6 MW, are to be built in a sparsely populated north-eastern corner of the Rogatec municipality, at least half a kilometre from the nearest settlement.
The wind farm could produce 55 gigawatt hours of power. The units will be connected via a 20 kilovolt cable conduit to the planned Rogatec wind farm substation, and from there by two further cables to the Rogaška Slatina transformer and distribution station.
Each unit is to comprise a tower measuring between 110 and 140 metres in height, and a rotor with a diameter of between 125 and 145 metres. The base with have a diameter of about 25 metres.
Under the national energy and climate plan Slovenia should derive at least 27% of its final energy consumption from renewable sources by 2030. The proportion was at 21.1% in 2018.
Slovenia has 12 locations of various sizes that measurements have shown are suitable for wind farms, but only two wind turbines are in fact in operation - a 2.3-megawatt one and a 0.9-megawatt unit, both located in the south-west.
In 2018 the output of the two wind turbines was equivalent to just 0.04% of Slovenia's energy consumption. They generated six gigawatt hours of electricity.
Despite public support for green energy in principle, opposition to wind farms by environmentalists and NIMBY [ed. not in my backyard] initiatives has been considerable.
