Slovakia no longer needs to import electrical energy. The dominant Slovak power producer, Slovenské Elektrárne, a.s. (SE), announced that Slovakia has again become a net electricity exporter after a gap of five years. In the first half of this year, 14.8 terawatt hours of electric energy were generated in Slovakia, representing an increase of 4.6 percent in yearly terms, the SITA newswire reported.
“The amount of energy generated in the first half of this year thus exceeded the amount produced in the same period of 2009 or 2007, which was also translated into the foreign trade balance, tipping the balance in favour of export for the first time since 2006, before the shutdown of the first unit of the [Jaslovské Bohunice] V1 nuclear power plant,” Slovenské Elektrárne stated in its monthly report, as quoted by SITA.
SE announced that one of the most significant factors contributing to Slovakia’s return to power exports was the increase in the volume of energy produced by the remaining nuclear power plant at Jaslovské Bohunice, and the construction of new photovoltaic power plants.