Inflated prices for solar power could cost taxpayers CZK 1bn

Prague, Feb 10 (CTK) - Czech taxpayers will pay up to Kc1,000bn due to the wrongly set system of support to electricity from photovoltaic plants, Environment Minister Tomas Chalupa said in discussion programme Partie (Sunday Match) on TV Prima Family yesterday.

The Energy Regulatory Office (ERU) announced this week that some of its employees might have acted illegally in setting the purchasing prices of electricity from photovoltaic plants in 2005 - 2011.

Due to the higher electricity prices set in a non-transparent way, the state may have incurred billions of crowns worth damage. Power distributors have to buy electricity from solar plants at prices much higher than for what they then sell it. The difference affects end prices for consumers.

Chalupa blames for the current situation the deputies who in 2005 voted for the relevant bill and also the then government whose term in office was near end and whose part were the Civic Democrats (ODS), and also the government of prime minister Jan Fischer which in the middle of 2009 and 2010 did not solve the situation which was threatening already at that time.

"When support is promised, it cannot be withdrawn. We can talk about halting the support or slowing it down for new photovoltaic sources but we have hardly the possibility to stop support to the photovoltaic sources that already exist," Chalupa noted.

When the lifespan of some solar plants ends, there is a danger that the solar panels will stay.

"It is true that a number of these photovoltaic parks was set up by legal entities formed for this purpose. This means there is a high risk that when the lifespan of these parks ends, the legal entities will end too. And the rest will be up to the state or municipalities," he warned.

Communist (KSCM) deputy Katerina Konecna in the debate accused Chalupa and his ministry of inactivity. She wanted to know when he would finally issue a decree on handling electrical waste that would also solve the problem with solar panels.

"If we do not deal with the issue already now, the photovoltaic panels will stay on the fields and the state will have to dispose of them. And we are talking about hundreds of millions of crowns that it will cost," Konecna stressed.

Chalupa conceded that the Environment Ministry in the past was unable to take care of raising money for the disposal of old solar panels as is the case, for example, by consumer electronics. He assured that he was dealing with the situation and looking for the way of securing enough money for the solar panels' future disposal.