Czechia Spends Tens of Billions of Crowns Yearly Supporting Solar Plants — What Happens After 2030?

By the end of this decade, Czechia's state guarantees for buying back electricity — which currently cost the budget tens of billions of crowns every year — will expire. The main beneficiaries of this support remain solar power plants built in 2009–2010: according to the Electricity Market Operator, last year alone they received 30.7 billion out of the 43 billion crowns paid out to all renewable sources combined, including wind and hydro plants, biomass and combined heat-and-power stations.

Under the Act on Supported Energy Sources, such plants are guaranteed a buyback price for 20 years, meaning state support for the first wave of solar parks will finally come to an end in 2029–2030.

Who Pays, and How Much

Normally, the costs of buying back electricity from renewable sources are split between consumers and the state budget: households have been paying 599 crowns for every megawatt-hour consumed. This year, however, to ease the burden on people and businesses, the state took on all the costs itself, allocating an extra 17 billion crowns from the budget.

According to the draft budget for next year published on the Finance Ministry's website, support for renewable energy sources overall will cost 40.72 billion crowns — up from the 31.9 billion the ministry had originally planned. Last year, total support for renewables and combined heat-and-power plants reached a record 43.4 billion crowns, the highest since 2020, driven by an increase of more than 8 billion crowns due to falling market electricity prices.

What Happens After 2030

Support for renewable energy has been a politically contentious topic for years. Former Finance Minister Zbyněk Stanjura once tried to tighten payout conditions for the "old" sources, but backed down after facing pushback from power plant owners — the support remained in place and is now fully funded by the state.

What will happen to this money after 2030 remains unclear. The level of operational support is set by the Energy Regulatory Office, while the budget itself falls under the Ministry of Industry and Trade. According to ministry spokesman Tadeáš Provazník, funding arrangements for the period after 2030 are currently being discussed at the interdepartmental level, with concrete decisions expected once the relevant legislation is drafted.

Finance Ministry spokesman Filip Bejgal acknowledges that if spending on renewable support declines after 2030, the corresponding line item in the Industry Ministry's budget could simply be reduced.

Will Any Money Remain for the Industry?

It's possible that some support will persist if the electricity market demands it. Currently, the buyback price for solar plant owners, after deducting the solar tax, stands at around 14 crowns per kilowatt-hour. Jan Krčmář, executive director of the Solar Association, believes that after 2030 plant owners would be happy to get even 2.5 crowns — their revenues will change fundamentally regardless.

Some recipients of support favor keeping at least part of it after 2030. "From a power plant owner's perspective — yes, because it would give us greater revenue from selling electricity," says Tomáš Buzrla, executive director of Solar Global. At the same time, he admits the topic is sensitive, and instead of extending the payments, the industry would welcome simplified permitting procedures for new facilities, investment in distribution grids, and a clear government stance on developing renewable energy.

According to the Finance Ministry spokesman, the money set aside for renewable energy support cannot be treated as a reserved sum that will simply be freed up for other purposes after 2030 — the final decision will only become clear from the budget that will be approved roughly three years from now.

New Expenses to Replace the Old

In the coming years, new projects requiring state or consumer support are likely to emerge — primarily related to existing coal-fired power plants and new capacity that the state has promised to support through so-called capacity mechanisms. Even if the line item "Fee for supporting the buyback of electricity from renewable sources" disappears from electricity bills, it will at least partly be replaced by another charge.

Owners of coal plants are already warning that operating older units could become economically unviable even before 2030, making it more cost-effective to shut them down than to keep them running. Czechia will also need new capacity — gas-fired power plants, combined heat-and-power stations and battery storage facilities — for which the state is preparing a new financing system through capacity mechanisms: essentially a form of insurance where the state pays operators for standing ready to supply the necessary grid capacity at critical moments, such as when the wind isn't blowing, the sun isn't shining, consumption spikes suddenly, or a major power source fails.

Contributions to fund this kind of emergency-readiness support will fall on consumers or the state budget, with the exact amount depending on how much capacity is needed. In addition, other regulated components of electricity prices — such as distribution fees, circuit breaker charges and system service fees — are expected to rise in the future due to grid infrastructure costs.

Source: seznamzpravy.cz