Large scale PV returns to Czechia thanks to $216 million solar rebate program

The Czech Ministry of Environment has launched the SER+ program, a CZK4.5 billion ($216 million) rebate scheme for photovoltaic projects.

The funds will be assigned through a series of competitive calls and projects located in areas affected by a decline in coal mining will be prioritized. Each selected project may secure funds to cover up to 50% of the costs for buying and installing the PV system.

Of the program's total budget, CZK1 billion will be allocated for projects not exceeding 1 MW in size and CZK3.5 billion will be earmarked for solar installations with a capacity of over 1 MW. For both project categories, the first call will be launched on June 12.

With this new scheme, large scale solar will be subsidized again in Czechia after the government closed, abruptly, a feed-in tariff scheme in 2011 and introduced, later, a few retroactive measures to reduce the level of support granted to the projects operating under that mechanism. Ever since, no more utility scale solar plants were built across the country.

According to the Czech government, the country has, currently, 2.2 GW of installed solar power.

In 2019, new PV additions totaled around 50 MW. Most of this capacity was deployed under the Green Savings Program for distributed generation and the country's solar-plus-storage scheme.