July the 15th, 2021 - The Croatian Green Energy Cooperative (Zelena energetska zadruga/ZEZ) is the first and only organisation in all of the Republic of Croatia to be financed by no less than Google itself.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Lucija Spiljak writes, the Croatian Green Energy Cooperative is the only organisation from Croatia that has been provided funding under Google's Google.org Impact Challenge to promote inclusive economic growth and create an equal chance for success in the digital world. A total fund of two million euros will be distributed to selected organisations for their respective projects from Google.
Google launched the aforementioned competition back in January for Central and Eastern European countries - to help organisations, thirteen of them, work to reduce the digital divide and promote inclusive economic growth. Each organisation was provided funding of between 50,000 and 250,000 euros, with the support and mentorship of Google.
The Croatian Green Energy Cooperative was provided funding with the SOL4ALL - Community-Led Solarisation project, which puts people at the centre of the energy transition to clean energy. As explained by the cooperative, this empowers people to invest and produce solar energy in their own homes.
The vision of the Croatian Green Energy Cooperative is to encourage the installation of 10 MW in solar capacity in the countries of the Western Balkans and thus strengthen the resilience of cities, encourage a fair economic recovery and influence the development of doing "green" businesses.
“We believe that people can make a significant contribution to tackling climate challenges and be the main drivers of the transition to clean energy. Strengthening their knowledge and understanding of renewable energy sources should play a major role, and we see digital education tools as a means to achieve that vision. We're thrilled that Google.org is supporting us in developing the project that unites us. This is a great opportunity for us and for people to contribute to carbon neutrality,'' said Erica Svetec, Project Manager at the Croatian Grene Energy Cooperative.
The funding of these various projects was dealt with by members of the International Committee of Experts, Google and the INCO Group. Among the members of the board was Hrvoje Josip Balen, co-founder and member of the Management Board of Algebra, who pointed out that he was pleased that there are initiatives from here in Croatia that effectively connect the digital path forward, going green and people.
“Actively encouraging and instructing individuals on how to generate electricity with optimal investment will certainly help accelerate and understand the necessary energy transformation,” Balen said.
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