Vukovar's water company is building solar with a battery at its wastewater plant and expects over EUR 300,000 a year off power costs
Vodovod grada Vukovara started procurement for a solar plant with battery storage at the Vukovar wastewater treatment plant, about EUR 1.5 million in total with about EUR 600,000 from the Modernisation Fund. Three smaller plants at Sotin, Ilok and Sarengrad come to about EUR 100,000.
A wastewater plant runs pumps and blowers around the clock. That makes it one of the biggest power users a small town owns.
Glas Slavonije reported on 11 August 2026 that Vodovod grada Vukovara, the town's water and wastewater company, is building solar plants to cut its electricity costs. The biggest goes at the Vukovar wastewater treatment plant and includes a battery system. Total value is about EUR 1.5 million. About EUR 600,000 comes from the Modernisation Fund, approved in March.
Three smaller plants are planned in Sotin, Ilok and Sarengrad, about EUR 100,000 in total, with EUR 43,000 approved in July. Public procurement has started. Director Mladen Markesic says that once all plants run, the company expects electricity costs to fall by more than EUR 300,000 a year. He links the battery to the treatment plant's high consumption: it lets the utility store power and use it later.
Analogy: it is a farmer who fills a water tank from the roof gutters so the pumps keep running after the rain stops.
Good: a public utility with a big, steady demand pairing solar with storage, with a budget, a grant amount and procurement under way. Water and wastewater sites everywhere have the same profile.
Bad: no kW or kWh sizes are published. The savings are the director's expectation, before a contractor or final design exists.
Ugly: EUR 300,000 a year against EUR 1.6 million of projects looks quick on paper. It is a forecast, not a measured bill, and we will not turn it into a payback.