Czech Republic needs to meet renewable energy development targets. Another support auction to open this year

The Ministry of Industry and Trade plans to launch another auction for renewable energy support this year. It should help meet targets for the supported volume of installed capacity, as none of the three auctions held so far has been fully subscribed.

Another auction for supported sources will take place in the Czech Republic this year. In the most recent one, investors competed for support for new wind and small hydropower plants, as well as for support to modernise electricity generation facilities using biogas. Three wind power projects and one small hydropower plant received support.

However, the first auction held this year, like all previous auctions, remained undersubscribed. In order to meet renewable energy development targets as set out in the government regulation defining the development of supported energy sources, one additional auction will be launched this year.

"This year, we announced one auction for operational support for electricity generation from renewable energy sources. This is a market-based principle of operational support required for these sources under European legislation. We are currently preparing a third auction for the capacity not awarded in previous calls, in line with Government Regulation No. 189/2022 Coll. We expect to publish this auction by the end of this year," René Neděla, deputy director general of the Energy and Nuclear Sources Section, told oEnergetice.cz.

Although the auctions are, after a long time, an opportunity to obtain support for most types of renewable energy sources, investor interest has been relatively lukewarm. So far, only five bids for wind power plants and one bid for a small hydropower plant have been selected in total. In the auction for modernising power plants using biogas, not a single bid has yet been successful.

Auctions for wind power plants have been the most successful so far. Projects with a combined capacity of 45 MW have received support.  However, a total of twice that capacity – 90 MW – was offered.  To meet this year's target, support would have to be awarded for a further 45 MW of installed capacity. 

Under European legislation, auctions are the only way to allocate support to sources with a capacity exceeding 1 MW (or, in the case of wind power plants, 6 MW or 6 wind turbine units). Sources with lower capacity may still receive support in the form of a green bonus. However, eligibility requires registration in the OTE system.