Czech Republic Considers Auctions (Tenders) for Large-Scale Renewable Energy Projects
/11th October 2019, RENEWABLE MARKET WATCHTM/ The Czech Republic is in the process of preparation to start renewable energy auctions (tenders) from 2021 to meet its future targets for renewable electricity in the final energy consumption. However, solar photovoltaic (PV) energy is not included in the auctions (tenders) in the first draft of the new RES auction (tender) law. Officials from the Czech government suppose that solar PV electricity shall be fully competitive without any subsidies from 2021 and shall not need any support.
By the end of 2007, the Czech solar photovoltaic market was undeveloped with the only 4MW of cumulative installed capacity. The favourable renewable energy law with very attractive feed-in tariff led to an uncontrolled boom in solar PV installations without adequate government reaction between 2009 and 2011 when almost 2GW of capacity was installed. There are nearly 22,000 solar systems with a total capacity slightly exceeding 2GW at the end of 2018 in the Czech Republic. In early 2011 the Czech government imposed retroactive 26 % tax of the income of previously installed PV plants between 2009 and 2010 and with this action brought panic and raised international scandal. A lot of concerned investors started court trials against the government. Furthermore, the Czech Republic stopped feed-in tariff and subsidizing solar photovoltaic installations completely from 1st January 2014 regardless of the size of the photovoltaic power plant.
In the Czech Republic, renewable electricity generation in plants up to 100 kW (30 kW in case of PV or 10 MW in case of hydropower) is supported through a feed-in tariff (for all solar photovoltaic power plants connected to the grid by the end of 2013). Plant operators may choose between a guaranteed feed-in tariff and a green bonus paid on top of the regular electricity price achieved in the market ("Premium Tariff"). Every electricity producer may make this choice once a year.
Coal remains the main energy source for electricity production in the Czech Republic, followed by nuclear, and hydro. The government expects coal to account for 55.5% of electricity production in 2005, and 36.8% in 2030, while the share of nuclear power will increase to 33.3% in 2005 and 38.6% in 2030. The Czech government also aims to increase renewable energy sources' contribution to electricity generation to 16.9% in 2030. Gross production of electricity from renewable sources accounted for 10.7 % of overall gross electricity production in 2018. This is based on data from the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic. Overall production of energy from renewable sources in the Czech Republic totalled 192.41m GJ in 2018. The largest shares of this total were accounted for by biomass in households (40.97 %) and outside households (23.89 %). It was followed by biogas (13.14 %), liquefied biofuel (6.84 %) and solar photovoltaic power plants (4.41 %).
However, we have to point out that after a 6-year stagnation the solar photovoltaic market in the Czech Republic in 2018 was slightly more optimistic and the positive mood also continued during 2019. During 2018 there have been more than 1,500 applications for support paid out with a capacity of 8 MW.
The more information and answers to your questions about the solar photovoltaic market in the Czech Republic you may read here: Central East and South-East Europe Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Power Market Outlook 2019÷2028
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