Czech Plans for Renewables. High on a wind turbine, hidden amongst the cherry orchards and the wheat fields of the Eastern Czech Republic, is a painting of a raven with a piece of bread in its mouth. The prophet St. Elias the Tishbite was kept alive by ravens feeding him bread when he was hidden in the desert. This is the St. Elias wind turbine and it belongs to the Pravoslavna Akademie Vilemoz, a non-profit Orthodox Church Monastery/Organisation that specializes in renewable energy. They believe God gave the sun and winds to man to use for energy and they constantly try to persuade the Czech Government to stop burning fossil fuels and using nuclear power.
Renewables
Sadly, it seems that the Government isn’t listening. At the end of 2012, the Czech Republic had a total of 260MW of installed wind power capacity, with 43MW of that added that year through six projects. While a few more are being installed this year, there are fears that the whole industry will grind to a halt due to the Czech Government’s plans to scrap the support framework for renewables. At the start of this year 2013 the feed-in tariff (FIT) was abolished for all renewable projects over 100kW and for hydropower projects exceeding 10MW in the Czech Republic. Under the abolished system, the obligation to buy electricity generated from renewable sources lay with the high voltage or distribution network operators, but they have no license to trade in electricity and so could only use the power to balance the electricity system.
The change was needed to bring renewables generation into the market, says Martin Bursik, former Czech environment minister and chairman of the Czech Renewable Energy Council. Now, all new renewables projects that do not qualify for the FIT must now use the “hourly bonus” mechanism. There are two payments under this system. Firstly, the renewables generator sells electricity to the obligatory buyer – divisions of dominant Czech energy company CEZ in six regions of the country and the Czech subsidiary of energy giant E.on in two regions – for a price calculated from the difference between the FIT and the hourly green bonus. Then Czech electricity and gas market operator OTE pays the hourly green bonus on top.
Czech Plans for Renewables
However, one problem lies in the Czech industry ministry’s right to authorize each project above 100kW according to 14 criteria, such as whether it is in line with state energy policy and whether network capacity is sufficient. Mr. Busik says:
“There is a danger of subjective decision-making with the aim of preventing renewables development. There is evidence that state-owned energy company CEZ, which has strong coal and nuclear interests, was closely involved in drafting the law, hoping to stop the development of renewables and eliminate competition in the electricity market.”
If that wasn’t bad enough, only three months after the law took effect, the Czech Energy Regulatory Office says it has begun to implement plans to stop subsidies for renewable energy sources from 2014, arguing that subsidies currently provided are beyond the financial limits of the Czech Republic. Opponents are trying to halt the plans or at least delay them until 2020, but 2014 appears to be the favored date at present. If the plans go ahead, wind development will come to a complete stop, the Czech wind energy association warns.
