PM: Situation around solar plants threatens economy

Prague, Feb 17 (CTK) - The current situation around photovoltaic power plants is not healthy and it threatens the economy of the Czech Republic, Prime Minister Petr Necas said in a discussion programme on Czech Television (CT) Sunday.

He said the government would have to do something about it but would not give any concrete steps to take.

Necas said the current management team of the Energy Regulatory Office (ERU) has his full confidence.

"The share of solar energy vis-a-vis gross domestic product (GDP) in the Czech Republic is the highest in the EU and we all start to realise that there's something wrong," Necas said.

He also pointed out that some of the interest groups supporting solar power plants are very aggressive.

Distributing companies have to buy electrical power from photovoltaic plants at prices substantially higher than the price at which they then sell the power. The difference is affecting the final price of electricity.

Customers pay Kc583 for renewable energy in every megawatt hour of power supplied to them this year, up from Kc419 last year.

The ERU regulator said early this month that some of its employees had apparently acted at variance with law between 2005 and 2011 when setting the purchasing prices of solar energy. Higher prices caused damage worth tens of billions of crowns as a result.

Environment Minister Tomas Chalupa said Czech taxpayers would pay up to Kc1,000bn over the wrongly set system of support to power from photovoltaic facilities.

The ERU report said that five out of the 20 largest solar plants in the country are owned by firms with bearer shares, that is their owners are anonymous.