CEZ to build 30 MW solar facility

CESKE BUDEJOVICE, CZECH REPUBLIC - Czech power company CEZ as has announced plans to build the Czech Republic's largest solar power facility, which will have a capacity of 30 megawatts (MW).

Speaking on Czech radio, the company revealed plans to build the solar farm on a 60-hectare site near the city of Ceske Budejovice in the south of the country. Construction of the plant could be completed within a year, with tens of thousands of photovoltaic panels covering an area the size of 80 football fields.

"This is a photovoltaic power station project that CEZ began at the very end of last year, and the plant should be launched into operation within 12 months," said Martin Schreier, communication manager for renewable resources at CEZ.

The new plant will be more than twice the size of the country's biggest solar farm, which is located at a former military site in Stribo. The 13-MW farm was built by German company Solarstrom AG on a 30-hectare site in 2009 and uses panels from Chinese manufacturer Yingli Green Energy Holding Company. The Stribo plant is capable of producing about 13.65 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy per year, enough for more than 3,100 homes. Under the conditions of the Czech Republic's attractive feed-in tariff, photovoltaic plants capable of more than 30 kWh get slightly less than 0.48 euro for each kilowatt-hour of fed-in electricity. This rate is guaranteed for 20 years.

However, it's unclear if CEZ's plant will enjoy the 2009 tariff, as the Czech energy regulator has cut the feed-in tariffs for solar-generated power by 5% for 2010. Now, solar power generators selling electricity to the grid will receive about 468 euros (US $679) per megawatt hour (MWh), compared to about 491 euros ($712.47) per MWh in 2009. The reduction is expected to harm the Czech Republic's dominance of the Eastern European solar power market. Following solar incentive cutbacks in Spain in 2009, which sent the global solar panel manufacturing market into a prolonged nosedive, the Czech Republic has been one of the most attractive markets for potential solar investors.

This 2010 cut is expected to reduce solar investment opportunities in the country. Since the introduction of a solar feed-in tariff in 2005, the Czech Republic has become the eighth-largest solar energy producer in the European Union, with a yearly capacity of almost 84 MW, up from just 3.4 MW in 2008.

In November 2009, CEZ commissioned the Hrusovany solar plant, a 3.73-MW farm on 7 hectares. Comprising 17,000 panels, the facility can generate 3.7 million KWh annually, enough for 1,000 homes in the southern Moravia region.