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advantage. Due to remoteness and low population density,
along with beautiful, pristine nature, these regions are
becoming an oasis in the polluted Europe, hungry for fresh
air, clean spring water and ecologically grown food. Thus,
the prospects of eco tourism and sustainable development
are growing strong. In that respect, renewable energy
sources could play an important role. RES applications are
ideal for remote areas with low population density, rough
and woody terrain where the gridlines are difficult to set and
even more difficult to maintain. So the prospects of RES
distributed locally and in prospective connected as
microgrids [3] is an inviting and economically viable option.
Within the EU funded project RISE, we tried to tackle
the existing se barriers to the wider scale application of
renewable energy sources and especially in communitybased
projects, since for Croatia, overcoming mentioned
barriers and giving communities a clear role and
involvement in managing and planning their energy future
and policy will have crucial role in increasing share of
renewable energy sources. The use of success stories and/or
demonstration projects is clearly essential to making real the
vision of sustainability.
B. Applied methodology
In a study of application potential for photovoltaics for
electricity production at isolated places, in the mountainous
and highlands regions, the following methodology was
applied:
1) Potential locations, candidates for study cases, were
identified in Lika region, in counties Korenica and Donji
Lapac. The main criterion in the selection process was that
the locations were not connected to national grid, that the
cost for grid installation is most probably too high to be
economically feasible, and that the proposed design would
have high replication potential for other off-grid locations.
2) Initial contacts with potential users have been
established as well as with local authorities and utilities
representatives. These locations were visited and technical
specifics of selected locations were determined.
3) Priorities of electricity needs of inhabitants at selected
sites were established. Detailed estimates of the expected
electricity consumption (power demand) were determined
based on the most important needs and daily habits.
4) Two types of systems to satisfy these electricity needs
were designed and analyzed in detalis: a stand-alone PV
system (consisting of PV panels, battery, inverter, charge
controller, etc) or PV-diesel hybrid system.
5) Global radiation data on the inclined, specifically
oriented surface were calculated using Meteonorm, a
professional computer program [4]. Output data were
prepared to be compatible with both PVSYST and
RETScreen computer simulation programs.
6) PVSYST – a specific, specialized professional
program [5] for simulations of PV or PV-genset hybrid
systems, was used to analyze quantitatively and in detail
selected PV-based systems and to optimize and assess all
technical aspects of the system design. In addition,
RETScreen [6], a standardized and integrated RES projectanalysis-software
was used for pre-feasibility, quantitative
economic analysis of various PV systems. Our newly
assembled Database of various Input data concerning PV
solar systems and system components that are available at
the Croatian market enabled realistic simulations for
optimizing size/price ratio of RES systems.
III. SELECTION OF POTENTIAL LOCATIONS
Long list of potential sites for RES applications in Lika
region was obtained from local authorities and local
dispatcher company. The visited and analyzed sites are
listed in the Table II. The most interesting information, cost
for grid instillation, obtained from the dispatcher company,
is given in the fifth column.
TABLE II
Analyzed continental locations with number of households, inhabitants
and cost for grid installation.
No. Location No. of No. of Cost for grid
houses inhabitants installation
1 Busevic 1 3 120 000 €
2 Homoljac 1 3 42 500 €
3 Vujinove
Glave
6 20 178 000 €
4 Corkova 1 Visiting N/A
Uvala
scientists
5 Grabusic 1 3 100 000 €
6 Uvalica 1 2 170 000 €
7 Melinovac 1 1 160 000 €
Three different types of locations were taken into
account: a) locations in the war-ravaged areas, still
experiencing the consequences of war, like Bušević,
Homoljac, Melinovac…; b) locations within the National
Parks and Nature Park areas, that due to preservation and
environmental reasons are not suitable for grid-connections,
like Uvalica, Ćorkova Uvala, Bigina Poljana; c) locations
that due to remoteness never had electricity, like Grabušić,
which has been permanently occupied, or Vujinove Glave,
occupied only during summertime.
Common characteristics of the visited locations is that: a)
the number of inhabitants in the household would increase
very soon should they get at least basic electricity, and b)
that in the close neighborhood some houses would be soon
repopulated if these elementary needs are satisfied.
Although we have concentrated in our analysis on the
location #1 as a study case, very similar rationale applies to
the other listed locations, as well as a great number of other
similar ones. A number of potential locations are found
within the Nature Park Velebit Mountain or the National
Park Plitvice Lakes, consisting of a complex of sixteen
cascading lakes, declared by UNESCO as the World's
natural inheritance. Classical grid connected installations are
quite inappropriate solutions since they interfere with the
park integrity, require drastic cuts in woodland, scare wild
animals, are expensive for maintenance, etc.. Ćorkova
Uvala is an interesting location in the remotest part of the
Plitvice Lakes NP. The Park Authorities would like to use it
as a center for scientists and environmentalists investigating
the Park area.
Our study case, Busevic village, is located on the rolling
hills at the highlands near the Una river, close to the
Croatian border with BiH. Administratively the village
2