03.09.2013: The Czech Energy Regulatory Office (ERU) believes that some solar power plant owners have rigged their electricity production data to receive more subsidies, reports the Prague Daily Monitor, citing public broadcaster Czech Television (CT). According to CT, ERU inspectors have revealed that some solar power plants have reported periods of sunlight that are only possible in places like California, not the Czech Republic. ERU expects Czech solar power plants to report no more than 1,200 hours of sunlight annually, but 1,574 producers reported levels above this limit. As a result, ERU is has asked the State Energy Inspection authority to investigate these producers and has informed the Supreme State Attorney’s Office that some power plant operators may be guilty of fraudulent use of subsidies. ERU has also found evidence that some licenses for solar power plants may have been granted based on fraudulent data. These licenses are related to power plants with a total installed capacity of about 150 MW and annual support of almost 4 billion CZK ($205 million). The annual cost of solar incentives in the Czech Republic this year is 44.4 billion CZK. Approximately 11.7 billion CZK of this comes from the federal budget; the remainder is paid for by ratepayers through increased electricity prices. The Czech Republic intends to stop offering FITs for new PV installations at the end of this year. ERU currently offers FITs for PV systems up to 30 kW in size. The Czech Republic had 2,128 MW of installed PV capacity at the end of June 2013. © PHOTON |
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