Czech Republic: Amendment to the Energy Law and the Building Act accelerates the deployment of renewable energy

In order to implement this goal, the Energy Law was amended in such a way that no licence for generating electricity will be required if a power plant has an installed capacity of up to 50 kWp. Previously, the limit was 10 kWp. The limit was increased to 50 kWp also in the Building Act.

Thus, neither a zoning decision nor a planning permission is required for renewable energy installations with a total installed capacity of up to 50 kW if the installations comply with the spatial planning documentation. However, this does not apply to hydropower plants, cultural monuments and structures in a specially protected area, nature reserve or conservation zone. A zoning decision or a planning permission is also not required for setting up a connection to a low-voltage electricity grid, provided that it is located no more than 25 m away from the lines of the existing grid built by a distribution grid operator whose distribution grid is connected to the transmission grid and to which more than 90 000 customer points are connected.

Also, no building permit or notification of the building authority is required if structural alterations are made by renewable energy installations with a total installed capacity of up to 50 kW, provided that these installations do not impair the supporting structures of the building, do not change the use of the building, do not require an environmental impact assessment, in particular the conditions of fire protection are met, and the building subject to the structural alterations is not a cultural monument.

Thus, the amendment goes beyond the requirements of Council Regulation (EU) 2022/2577 of 22 December 2022 laying down a framework to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy, as no building permit or energy licence is required for the construction of e.g. PV installations with a capacity of up to 50 kWp.

Renewable energy installations of over 1 MWp in the public interest

However, the amendment to the Energy Law should also accelerate the expansion of larger installations, as the amendment now places the operation of renewable energy installations with an installed capacity of more than 1 MWp in the public interest. According to the current building law, installations that are in the public interest may thus also be built in areas that are not designated for this purpose without first having to change the land use plan on the one hand, and on the other hand, other public interests, such as nature conservation, no longer automatically have priority in the weighing of interests when granting a building permit, since the construction of the installation itself now represents a public interest. Therefore, an individual weighing of interests must always take place.

Designation of go-to areas

Furthermore, it will be possible to designate go-to areas which are particularly suitable for the expansion of renewable energy installations and in which the approval of the project will be considerably simplified.

Outlook

The amendment will certainly have a positive effect on the expansion of the deployment of renewable energies in the Czech Republic. Interest in rooftop PV systems already increased considerably in the past year. The administrative simplifications will only reinforce this trend. The expansion of larger PV or wind power plants is also likely to attract interest again, particularly in view of current electricity prices. Under certain conditions, the construction of such power plants will also make sense without operating incentives. The first corporate PPA has already been concluded in the Czech Republic.

In addition to the amendment that has now come into force, another amendment is also in the process of being legislated, intended to enable the joint use of electricity from renewable energy installations, which should be of particular interest to municipalities and associations of homeowners, or entrepreneurs with several locations. It also aims to facilitate the expansion of agrivoltaics and the storage of electricity or even make them possible at all. This amendment, which will hopefully be passed before the end of this year, should further significantly stimulate the expansion of renewable energy installations in the Czech Republic.

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