Energy group CEZ plans to invest Kc500-550bn by 2030, with half of the amount to be used for the existing sources and assets and the latter half to be used for the company’s growth, according to CEZ CFO Martin Novak.
The plans are quite realistic as CEZ currently invests Kc40bn a year (Kc400bn in ten years), Novak said.
Apart from investing in distribution networks and further development of modern energy services (ESCO), the aggregate sum also includes CEZ’s costs relating to the construction of a new unit at nuclear power plant Dukovany, company acquisitions and money to be spent on building new renewable sources.
Severoceske doly, part of CEZ group, will stop mining brown coal by 2038 at the latest, Novak said.
The previous deadline was 2050. Novak did not rule out an earlier coal exit depending on market conditions.
The Coal Commission recommended last December that Czechia stop using coal for electricity and heat production in 2038, with some ministers preferring the year 2033.
In May, the government took note of the recommendation but did not vote on the date.
CEZ said in the updated strategy this year that its heating plants will stop combusting coal by 2030, planning to invest CZK 30-40bn in the modernisation and transformation of heat producers to use new fuels by that year.
Environmentalist organisations were not surprised by Novak’s announcement of the 2038 date but they believe that the mining will end even sooner, around 2030, Jiri Kozelouh of Friends of the Earth (Hnuti Duha) and Jan Rovensky of Greenpece.
Source: CEZ and CTK
