According to statistical information on the share of RES, the Republic of Croatia is an average EU member. However, information on consumption and domestic generation of electricity without CO2 emissions (hydro power plants, wind power plants and the nuclear power plant Krško) for 2012 point to a lack of electricity of about 10,200 GWh. Import of the specified amount of electricity in the period of 8 years requires funds in the amount of more than EUR 4,000 million, and production in the existing domestic thermal plants (fuel import and purchasing allowances for CO2 emissions) in the period of 8 years requires funds in the amount of approximately EUR 7,400 million. Hypothetical production in new coal thermal plants would require total funds of about 4,300 million EUR in the period of 8 years, and production in new gas thermal power plants would require total funds of about 6,000 million EUR in the period of 8 years.

Since these are enormous funds of the Republic of Croatia, a possibility was considered to produce the lack of electricity from renewable energy sources (RES) according to the preferences from the National Action Plan for RES (biomass, hydropower and geothermal energy), for which there are no costs for purchasing emission allowances for CO2, or fuel costs in case of some forms of RES (hydropower, geothermal energy). It was found that due to the insufficient energy potential of the aforementioned types of RES, the production of electricity of about 10,200 GWh could not be realised completely and that the energy balance should include significantly larger proportions of wind and solar energy for the production of electricity, for which there are also no costs for purchasing emission allowances for CO2 or fuel costs.

AmCham advocates measures which will allow increasing the capacities of wind and solar power plants through the promotion of investments of potential investors in these sources of energy. The key tasks for the realization of this approach are the following:

• Simplifying the administrative procedure;
• Abolishing the existing quotas for the construction of wind and solar power plants;
• Eliminating barriers to the connection of wind and solar power plants with higher power to the power network.

This analysis also shows that the climate and energy goals of the EU for 2030 in terms of a competitive, safe and low-carbon EU economy are unattainable for the Republic of Croatia without ensuring conditions for the widespread use of solar and wind energy.