CZ: Long queue forming for renewable energy dole

Despite continued reservations about the potential of renewable energy sources in the Czech Republic, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is set to begin its most ambitious subsidy program later this year.

As the Czech Republic and other European Union countries come to terms with their commitments to boost renewable energy use in coming decades, interest from the private sector in supplying the country’s renewable needs has been booming in the past year. While the country is far from becoming a “green” paradise for energy, a generous state subsidy program is slowly giving a boost to an infant industry.
“Doing business in the renewable energy sector is just beginning, but it is growing quickly,” said Stanislav Nikl, chairman and director of operations for SVEP, which operates wind power plants in North Bohemia.

To help the renewables sector, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MPO), with the backing of EU structural funds, is earmarking hundreds of millions of crowns for dozens of projects during the next six years—and interest in these funds continues to grow. In July, the deadline for registering applications for the first phase of EU and Czech subsidies for renewable energy and energy savings projects closed, and small and medium- sized businesses (SMEs) filed 568 applications requesting a total Kc 10.5 billion (€ 380.5 million)—although only Kc 850 million is being made available initially.

To meet this demand, the MPO last week, pledged an additional Kc 2 billion form the program, and MPO spokesman Tomas Bartovsky said the high appetite for state subsidies caught the ministry by surprise. Over the next six years, the Czech Republic should have more than Kc 6 billion to dole out for energy programs aimed at reducing the country’s emission output.

Czech Business Weekly