GEN-I Sonce – building a secure future of energy self-sufficiency on the foundation of 10,000 installed solar power plants

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GEN-I Sonce, Slovenia’s largest turnkey solar power plant provider, built its 10,000th solar power plant in June. It will provide carbon-free electricity to a family in Črnomelj. Based on its extensive experience, GENI Sonce is thus continuing to build and operate solar power plants with efficiency and effectiveness.

GEN-I Sonce has built its 10,000th solar power plant on a home in Črnomelj. A total of 16 solar panels with a surface area of 32 square metres and a power of 7.04 kW will provide the family with a reliable and clean source of energy, lower monthly costs and the pleasant feeling that the owners have contributed to reducing emissions without affecting the quality of life in their home. The power plant will generate approximately 6,680 kWh of electricity annually from the sun, which is 1.7 tonnes of CO₂ saved per year.

GEN-I Sonce has been building a green future since 2017, when it installed its first solar power plant. To date, 10,000 solar power plants have been installed in Slovenia, and with them the country’s carbon footprint is steadily decreasing. In 2018, for example, 351 solar power plants generated a total of just under 4,600 MWh of electricity, reducing CO₂ emissions by just over 2,200 tonnes. In 2023, nearly 8,000 solar power plants generated close to 184,000 MWh of electricity, resulting in a reduction in CO₂ emissions of more than 90,000 tonnes. The table below shows how the growth in the number of GEN-I Sonce solar power plants that have been installed is contributing to the reduction in CO₂ emissions:

The above data on CO₂ emission reductions clearly demonstrate the importance of solar power plants for Slovenia’s sustainable energy transformation. GEN-I Sonce believes that the trend of building new solar power plants and with them the growing share of carbon-free electricity in Slovenia’s energy balance will continue in the future – especially now that the highest self-supply subsidies in history are available to consumers. When these subsidies are combined with GEN-I’s unique surplus buyback model, then it’s clear that the use of a comprehensive self-supply system brings long-term savings, more affordable investment in renewables, greater energy independence and a faster investment payback period.

Following the connection of a solar power plant, GEN-I is the first on the electricity market to offer a new self-supply model, which allows the purchase of excess electricity in the form of a credit that reduces monthly electricity bills. It is suitable for both solar power plants with and without storage. With this new self-supply solution, which is based on 15-minute billing intervals, solar power plant owners can make additional savings of more than EUR 1,000 per year, a step towards greater financial relief and making a high annual end-of-year reconciliation bill a thing of the past.

For a more accurate calculation of the potential annual savings for your home, the new GEN–I Sonce calculator is available to anyone considering such an investment. By simply entering the annual electricity consumption and fuse capacity, it provides a quick and informative calculation of the savings both when building a conventional solar power plant and when building a plant with energy storage.

The average payback period for a solar power plant with a subsidy and GEN-I’s model with the surplus buyback option is 8 years, and 11 years for a solar plant with storage. The financially demanding installation of an energy storage system therefore extends the payback period of the investment, but brings additional savings over the lifetime of the solar power plant, which is expected to be 30 years. When the solar power plant is producing electricity and the battery is already full, GEN-I, with its unique self-supply model, buys back the excess energy. This way customers need less electricity from the grid at a time when supply is most expensive, and they receive a credit on their monthly electricity bill for the surplus energy. Solar power plants with energy storage are also the best solution when grid constraints prevent customers from building as large a solar power plant as they would like.

“The ten thousand solar power plants installed by GEN-I Sonce provide the company with a leading position on the Slovenian market and, above all, with extensive experience, allowing us to provide our customers with high-quality solar power plant construction backed by strict ISO standards. Together with our unique model of buying back the excess energy that is generated and Borzen’s subsidies for self-supply, we have proven that the decision to install a solar power plant is an excellent investment in a green future,”

said Gregor Hudohmet, the Managing Director of GEN-I Sonce, d.o.o., on the occasion of this important milestone.