The installed capacity of newly commissioned photovoltaic power plants increased by 366% year-on-year in 2022. Enormous growth is also expected in 2023. While hydropower plants, represented in recent years exclusively by small plants, have shown steady additions of new licenses, the construction of wind power plants (WPPs) has completely stopped in the last two years. VTEs cover only 1% of our consumption, which is 11 times less than in neighbouring Austria. This and a number of other trends are shown in a detailed analysis by TPA Valuation & Advisory s.r.o.
Dynamic development of photovoltaics
“In 2022, we have seen the largest increase in the number of licenses and commissioned PV capacity since 2014. A significant trend has been the installation of domestic power plants, with a total of 33,000 plants with a capacity of up to 10 kWp commissioned in 2022, according to data from the Solar Association. The total capacity of these newly commissioned domestic PV plants is 237.3 MWp. Thus, photovoltaics still leads significantly compared to hydro and wind power plants,” says Jiří Hlaváč, partner at TPA Valuation & Advisory.
The year 2022 was marked by turbulent developments in the European and global energy markets. There were several reasons for this. In addition to the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops, which began in February last year, Europe was hit by drought, which reduced hydropower production. Reduced capacity at nuclear power plants in France has also had an impact on the EU energy sector. All of this has led to rising spot prices for electricity and gas on the exchanges during 2022, further strengthening the incentive to build solar power plants across Europe.
“We expect an enormous increase in PV installations in 2023 as well, including in the corporate installation segment, where funds from the National Renewal Plan are expected to be drawn down. To date, 6,000 companies have already applied for subsidies,” adds Jiří Hlaváč.
Hydro and wind power plants
Hydro and wind power plants have been lagging behind photovoltaics for a long time. Since 2005, hydropower plants have shown no trend in the number of new licences issued and installed capacity. “At present, Czech rivers and water bodies are virtually no longer offering space for the construction of new medium and large hydropower plants. Therefore, most of the new installed capacities represent the commissioning of new small hydropower plants (hereinafter referred to as SHPPs),” Hlaváč commented.
A total of 51 HPPs were commissioned in 2022. In 2021, hydropower plants in the Czech Republic produced 17% more than in the previous year and the most since 2013. The biggest contributor to this is the growing modernisation and increasing efficiency in the production of electricity from hydropower.
Wind power technology (WTG) is one of the sources with the smallest installed capacity in the RES in the Czech Republic. Historically, the highest installed capacity was between 2007 and 2010. Since then, new wind power plants have been added less and less. In 2021 and 2022, not a single new wind power plant was built. VTEs cover only about 1% of electricity consumption, which is 11 times less than in neighbouring Austria, which has comparable geographical conditions.
