Island facts
The island of Korčula is located in Dubrovnik-Neretva County, which is the southernmost county in Croatia. It stretches in the east-west direction, with its length of 46.8 km, a width of 5.3 to 7.8 km has an area of 279.03 km2 and is the sixth-largest island in Croatia.
The island was once a Greek colony called Korkyra Melaina or Black Korcula because of the lush vegetation which adorns the island. The island population is turning to a new future, bright and green. Korčula is an island where the community is guided by the principles of caring for people, caring for the environment; conservation of the common good and resources.
The development of tourism started at the end of the 19th century. The first public bath was built in the town of Korčula in 1904, and the first Korčula tourist brochure in several languages was printed in Vienna in 1914. After II. World War II, in the sixties, began the development of modern tourism throughout the island: hotels were built, camps and other tourist and catering facilities. "Health tourism" is especially important due to the mild climate, clean air and sea, and healing mud on several island sites. Today, the island of Korčula is a unique combination of beautiful nature, millennial cultural tradition and history and modern tourism.
Goals
The goal of the local community is to turn the island carbon-neutral by 2050, to make it energy self-sufficient and to strengthen the community to be resilient to crises that will potentially recur in the future. Also, to rely only on local and sustainable production and cover its own needs locally.
There is no grid-connected electricity generation on the island. Energy is supplied with land by submarine cable. There are several separate systems with photovoltaic modules, but their size is negligible.
All local government units on the island of Korčula base their further development of the economy on greater development of tourism and the entire Dubrovnik-Neretva County. The two most developed sectors of the economy on the island are agriculture and tourism. The tourism sector can have a strong impact on immediate energy consumption. Total direct energy consumption is estimated at approximately 60 GWh per year with a peak load of 28,342 MWh.
By 2040 there is a plan to set up a system of renewable energy sources (mostly photovoltaic) that will allow 100% of electricity consumption to come from renewable energy sources. Therefore, it is necessary to implement a comprehensive energy management system that uses storage and can automatically manage consumption according to production while getting into consideration of user preferences.
Guidelines to the goal can in principle be framed in 4D: Demarcation, Decarbonisation, Decentralisation, Digitalisation.
Project-specific support provided by the EU Islands Secretariat
Korcula requested a long-term yield assessment of a PV installation development in a business zone on the island.