Prague, July 28 (CTK) – Czech Environment Minister Richard Brabec wants solar panels to disappear from fields based on an approved amendment to the energy law to take effect on January, 1, 2016, and a planned state subsidy to the prices of panels for family houses, Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes Tuesday.
It writes that until recently, solar panels were cropping in the fields, while they were scarce on the roofs of family houses.
“The connection of small producers to the grid will be easier, completely simple for one’s own need. Those selling energy further on to the grid will need a certificate from the distribution system’s operator, but the process continues to be simplified,” Brabec told MfD.
He said the households solar boom should also be boosted by their relieving of the duty to have a licence from the Energy Regulatory Office (ERU).
At the same time, the prices of photovoltaic technologies continue decreasing and in addition, the state plans to subsidise their purchase, Brabec said.
“As from next year, within the New Green Savings Programme, we want to support the photovoltaic part in addition to the support for solar water heating panels,” Brabec said.
MfD writes that the Czech Republic has been a textbook example of how to unfortunately use solar energy in electricity generation. Endless rows of grey panels have covered up thousands of hectares of fields and pastureland, encircled by barbed wire fences.
Of the total output of 2100 megawatts of photovoltaic plants in 2014, a mere 94 megawatts were generated by small facilities, MfD writes.
It writes that this is due to the many times criticised mistake the state made when it allowed a boom of solar power plants with a nonsensically high purchasing price of solar energy in 2009-10.
The price was several times higher than the price of energy from other sources, MfD writes.
The output of photovoltaic plants rose 30 times in 2008-10, and the state spends 45 billion crowns annually on support for these facilities, Brabec said.
He said his ministry believes that the existing solar panels will reach the end of their life expectancy and no more will be built.
“The future does not lie in built-up fields. I believe that we will again sow them with agricultural plants. But we have to wait for about 15 years until the support for their operation ends,” Brabec said.
Experts from NGOs are sceptical about Brabec’s optimism that he will succeed in pushing solar plants away from fields and meadows, MfD writes.
The NGOs say the end to the support in the form of higher purchasing prices of electricity that the state has pledged to provide during 20 years will not suffice.
Since 2014, the newly built solar energy facilities are no longer entitled to the support, MfD writes.
The plants will be repaid in 15 years and they will definitely continue producing energy even without state support, Milos Cihelka, spokesman for the Czech Photovoltaic Industry Association, said.
The longer life expectancy would play into the hands of Brabec’s idea of a quick decreasing of demand for coal, which is at variance with the interests of mines owners and of miners who are afraid of losing work, MfD writes.
It writes that miners demonstrated outside the Government Office in support of lifting the mining limits in northern Bohemia on Monday.
“The state energy concept predicts that some 16 to 17 percent of electric power would be generated from coal by 2040. Last year, the share of coal slightly dropped below 50 percent. Developments are quick, we will completely do without coal in a few decades,” Brabec said.
