First Czech renewable energy auction ends in fiasco, with no bids submitted

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has published another call for bids in the 2022 auction for support for electricity from renewable sources. The first one ended due to a lack of investor interest, with not a single bid submitted. The ministry therefore issued a new call before the end of the year, for the same volumes but with higher maximum support prices.

Starting next Tuesday, a new call will open for applicants seeking support for renewable sources through an auction. This is already the second call published by the Ministry of Industry and Trade this year.

Under the Act on Supported Energy Sources, auctions are generally intended for plants with larger installed capacity: above 6 MW or six wind turbines in the case of wind power plants, while the lower threshold for other sources is 1 MW of installed capacity.

The first auction, announced on 19 September 2022, however, ended unsuccessfully. After several years in which renewable energy construction had been curtailed due to the practical absence of support, the first auction was expected to attract a number of bids. However, the result was the complete opposite: not a single bid was submitted to the auction, the Ministry of Industry and Trade confirmed to oEnergetice.cz.