10th Slovenian Photovoltaic Conference
What: 10. SLOVENIAN PHOTOVOLTAIC CONFERENCE
Where: University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Slovenia
When: June 19, 2024
Last week, on 19th of June, we attended the 10th Slovenian Photovoltaic Conference at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Electrical Engineering organized by the Laboratory for Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics. In addition to the conference, an exhibition by selected companies took place in the faculty lobby, where conference participants and students could learn about their activities.
The conference took place just one day after Minister Bojan Kumer, Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Energy, announced that Slovenia had surpassed a 25% share of renewable energy sources (RES) in gross final electricity consumption in 2023. Therefore, the opening speech of the conference was fittingly delivered by the minister. Alongside the minister, Prof. Marko Topič, Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, also greeted the conference participants. Both emphasized the importance of investing in the development and expansion of RES, particularly photovoltaics (PV), as Slovenia has high potential in this field.
Both the morning and afternoon programs featured numerous interesting presentations on PV. The conference began with Miha Grabnar, PhD, who introduced the company Predictive d.o.o., which specializes in energy forecasting based on satellite imagery and deep learning. They use global modelling for their predictions, which is considered an effective technique for time series forecasting. The morning program also highlighted presentations by Gregor Novak, MSc, from SunContract d.o.o. and Assoc. Prof. Marko Jankovec, from the Laboratory for Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics, who presented his research on the implementation of photovoltaic in electric vehicles.
In the afternoon session, we first listened to lectures on the safety, construction, and insurance of PV systems. At the end of the day, representatives from the most successful and innovative municipalities in Slovenia in the field of PV presented their achievements. Noteworthy were the presentations of the achievements and plans of the Municipality of Kranj, which invests heavily in RES, and the Municipality of Hrastnik, where the mayor encouraged conference participants to think critically about public-private partnerships, regulatory procedures, and the local development of RES in Slovenia. In the afternoon program, the company GEN-I also presented, showcasing actual calculations (payback period) for a theoretical example of a PV prosumer. This topic is particularly relevant given the phasing out of net metering and the installation of small energy storage systems for self-use in the future. Therefore, it was no surprise that the GEN-I representative, Blaž Krese, PhD, received many questions from the audience after his presentation.
