How Slovenia’s businesses are using smart tech to combat the energy crisis
It’s being a green, creative and smart country that makes Slovenia a prime location for technology companies reimagining the future.
With a long tradition of combining hard-earned experience with innovative thinking, Slovenia’s economy is supported by many successful homegrown businesses. Extraordinary, sustainability-minded entrepreneurs are creating technologically advanced products and globally competitive services. For these reasons, the country has become an attractive place for investment and cross-border trade.
Over the last 10 years, government policies have doubled FDI, to €16.6 billion in 2020.
High levels of investment have helped Slovenia to rank fifth for the generation of smart products by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), supported by the volume of digital- and robot-intensive industries.
Slovenia’s global reputation for its green economy and environmental technology has positioned it as a front runner in developing modern solutions to the problems that affect us all.
Bringing green innovation to life
The challenge of providing Europe – and the wider world – with energy security is an increasingly urgent issue. Powering homes, businesses, and transport needs to become less impactful and cheaper in order to be sustainable, so as a country renowned for its green credentials, some of Slovenia’s successful startups are focusing on how to achieve exactly this.
ELES, the operator of Slovenia’s electric power transmission network, has provided safe, and reliable electric power transmission throughout Slovenia and across the borders for nearly 100 years. Now, it’s focused on developing smart technology to address the problems the energy sector faces.
The company’s E8 Concept looks to develop a sustainable infrastructure for mass charging of e-vehicles across the country. It works by integrating slower EV charging from a renewable source across a dense network of private charging stations into the electric power system. This means the power grid won’t need any major investments to expand, nor the construction of peak power plants to ensure a reliable electricity supply. It’s a deceptively simple solution to intelligently distribute power where and when it’s needed.
ISKRA is another Slovenian company working towards the same green goals within the country’s sustainable transportation sector.
ISKRA develops innovative Smart Energy Meters designed for EV charging stations, which boast state-of-the-art features for the EV charging community such as a more compact design over rivals and smart connectivity to improve the use and delivery of energy.
“Digitization is rapidly changing the ways of energy management,” says Boris Šajnović, Head of Project Management at ISKRA. “Improving energy efficiency, for example, would contribute enormously to the reduction of global energy consumption and CO2 emissions in the construction sector and e-mobility.”
With solutions dotted around all continents of the globe, the company boasts a plethora of achievements, including the German Eichrecht standard compliance, enabling a more transparent measurement and billing of energy from charging stations to electric vehicles.
A nurturing environment for sustainable business
There are numerous benefits to having an innovation-focused company in Slovenia.
Uroš Salobir, the director of the Strategic Innovation Department at ELES, says the company has been able to play a vital role in achieving the green energy transition – from pioneering the national energy transmission sector to participating in numerous international research and innovation projects – due to the country’s supportive and entrepreneurial environment.
“In Slovenia, innovative companies like [us] have strong support from the government, industry and, in particular, citizens. And employees are future-oriented; they want to know the prospect of the company they work for.”
“The culture here is characterized by adaption to change. We are constantly searching for a better future; therefore, there are no barriers to good and reasonable ideas in business, culture, sports or elsewhere.”
But what makes Slovenia a competitive place to do business? With its lean administration and responsive public-private partnerships, Salobir stated that the country offers an excellent environment for large-scale projects to transform energy systems.
“Slovenia offers an excellent academic environment, creating a strong basis for an educated workforce,” he says. “The business culture calls for work efficiency and does not promote working extra hours, which is the other side of the innovation coin,” said Uroš Salobir.
“Slovenia is a great country for doing business due to the supportive environment for innovation, strict laws protecting intellectual property, and a good network of public agencies to help grow and promote companies globally,” says Boris Šajnović, Head of Project Management Office at Iskra. “It’s truly a good pilot environment to test and demonstrate innovative projects with the full support of local people, government and business climate.”
It’s this support that helps innovative companies like ELES and ISKRA to focus on the future.
