Solar power plants are third-largest source in Czech Republic. They generated over 2 TWh this year

Solar power plants in the Czech Republic have generated more than 2 TWh of electricity in total so far this year. Electricity generation at the same point this year substantially exceeds last year's output from solar power plants. According to publicly available data, it reached 1.3 TWh over the comparable period last year. Solar power plants have also become the third-largest source of electricity in the Czech Republic.

After many years of stagnation, solar power plants are beginning to play an increasingly important role in electricity generation in the Czech Republic. Following this period of stagnation, the sector is now also reporting positive news. The first came at the start of this year, when positive statistics were published showing a substantial increase in installed solar capacity in 2023.

Last year, solar power plants were actually built again after a long time. According to data from the Solar Association, installed solar capacity in the country increased by 970 MW. In terms of the number of installations, this amounted to 83,000 new systems. These were therefore predominantly smaller installations, with the average installation having a capacity of around 11 kWp.

“Growth is being driven by rooftop installations for households and businesses. However, if we want to harness the potential of solar energy in Czechia and, above all, prepare for the very real scenario that coal-fired power plants will be shut down earlier than expected, we must accelerate the construction of solar parks,” Jan Krčmář, executive director of the Solar Association, said at the start of the year regarding last year's growth.

The increase in installed capacity is naturally also gradually being reflected in the amount of electricity supplied by solar power plants to the grid. This year, electricity generation from solar power plants has already exceeded 2 TWh (as of the start of this week, it stands at 2.094 TWh according to current estimates). For comparison, solar power plants generated 2.78 TWh in the whole of last year and 2.36 TWh the year before.

Czech solar power plants are therefore very likely to surpass the average annual generation recorded in 2015 and subsequent years as early as July. In those years, electricity generation regularly stood at around 2.3 TWh annually.

The growth in solar generation is also clearly visible in monthly statistics. So far, electricity generation from solar power plants has been the highest on record in every month this year. In some months, the increase has been significant, amounting to tens of percent compared with the previous record.

Solar energy is targeting another milestone this year. As of today, solar power plants are the third-largest source of electricity in the Czech Republic, behind still-dominant nuclear and coal generation. Solar power plants were already the fourth-most significant source last year.

Electricity generation is currently being driven primarily by smaller household installations. In the coming years, however, larger solar parks are also expected to be added. This is mainly due to support from the Modernisation Fund. Thanks to it, large power plants are also set to be built in Czechia — semi-state-owned ČEZ alone has dozens of approved projects with a total capacity in the high hundreds of MWp.

Solar power plants have no fuel costs and can therefore supply electricity to the grid at low prices. This is reflected in very low, and sometimes even negative, electricity prices on wholesale markets. Negative prices in the Czech Republic have already been more frequent this year than last year. To date, negative prices have occurred in 210 trading hours.