TY - JOUR TI - Croatia's rural areas - renewable energy based electricity generation for isolated grids AU - Protic Sonja Maria AU - Pašičko Robert JN - Thermal Science PY - 2014 VL - 18 IS - 3 SP - 731 EP - 742 PT - Article AB - Several Western Balkan states face the consequences of the Yugoslavian war, which left hometowns with dilapidated electricity grid connections, a high average age of power plant capacities and low integration of renewable energy sources, grid bottlenecks and a lack of competition. In order to supply all households with electricity, UNDP Croatia did a research on decentralized supply systems based on renewable energy sources. Decentralized supply systems offer cheaper electricity connections and provide faster support to rural development. This paper proposes a developed methodology to financially compare isolated grid solutions that primarily use renewable energies to an extension of the public electricity network to small regions in Croatia. Isolated grid supply proves to be very often a preferable option. Furthermore, it points out the lack of a reliable evaluation of non-monetizable aspects and promotes a new interdisciplinary approach.