The plan, adopted late in the day, calls for a cap on feed-in tariffs for solar energy of about half the current level and seeks mandatory recycling of old solar panels.
It also seeks annual limits on subsidies for wind and solar power. "This is one of the measures that the government…is taking in reaction to the current rapid development of some renewable resources and connected economic risks," government spokesman Tomas Bartovsky said in a statement. "It defines limits for various sources. When these are exceeded, the government will interrupt or cancel subsidies."
In March, Czech lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a law to control the solar energy boom that has triggered fears of a steep rise in electricity prices and future power grid instability, continues Reuters.
The legislation came after the combination of a drop in the price of solar panels and high fixed tariffs brought the return on the initial investment for some plants down to as little as three years. These generous subsidies made the Czech Republic the third biggest solar power country in Europe last year behind Germany and Italy in terms of newly-installed capacity. "This will for example allow us to halt the rocket-like growth of photovoltaic power plants," Bartovsky said.
Popular content
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
Share
Becky Beetz
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.