IntelliNews - Czech Republic Renewable Energy Report - March 2012

Additional Information

Countries in central and south-eastern Europe are continuing to pursue their strategy to raise the share of renewable energy in overall consumption as a way to diversify their power mixes and reduce dependence on fossil fuels. So far, geographic and weather specifics have been the main factors that determine the sectors of priority for each individual state.

Governments in the region have introduced measures to support alternative energy producers but the ongoing financial crisis in the eurozone is them to cut costs, which has a negative impact on the development of the renewable energy sources (RES) sector that strongly depends on state support.

The Czech government, which bets on raising its nuclear power output in the long run, has already announced plans to cut support to the RES sector as customers are starting to feel the effect of rising power prices due to a solar energy boom. The Czech Republic hopes to exceed its 2020 target of 13.5% share of renewable energy in the overall energy mix. The country’s gross RES power production accounted for 8.5% of the total domestic consumption in 2010.

In 2010, the Czech Republic recorded the third highest volume of new installed solar capacity in the EU, becoming the fourth largest EU country in the segment. The installed capacity of such plants rose more than four times to 1,953MW in 2010. The number of photovoltaic plants is expected to continue rising this year but at a much slower pace because of the reduced state support to the industry. The country added only 6MW of new solar plants in 2011.

Biomass is the RES with the biggest potential in the Czech Republic and currently represents 10% of the overall power generation from renewable sources. Yet, rising prices of input material might impede the development of the segment. The government promotes the use of biomass in small heating plants and family houses, but not for major industrial production in power plants.

Biogas stations were the fastest growing renewable energy source in 2011. Their installed capacity rose to 168MW and their number to 264, while analysts predict the Czech Republic has a capacity for about 500 biogas power plants.