When we think of countries at the forefront of solar power adoption, China, the USA, Spain and Australia often come to mind; but the Czech Republic has seen so much growth in new solar panel installations, the state electricity control authority has called for a ban on new PV grid connections.
The explosion of solar uptake in the nation began with the commencement of a generous feed in tariff that pays a premium rate to owners of solar power systems for the electricity generated by their systems exported to the mains grid.
In 2007, just 3 megawatts of solar panels were installed throughout the country. That skyrocketed to 50.8 megawatts in 2008, with 31.5 megawatts installed in December 2008 alone. While those figures may not seem like much compared to countries such as Spain, the Czech Republic has a far smaller population.
2009 saw another bumper year in solar power adoption in the nation, to the point that the Czech Republic’s mains grid electricity infrastructure is “crackling” under the strain.
According to the Czech Republic’s state electricity authority, CEPS, more than 600 MW of wind and solar power installations are now connected to the Republic’s mains grid, with projects in the pipeline that would bring a total to 3,500 MW of renewable energy into the nation’s electricity mix. CEPS say the electricity system of the Czech Republic is already beyond the safe limits of installed capacity.
As a result, CEPS has called for a suspension of new wind and solar power connections to the nation’s grid until such time existing infrastructure can be developed to handle the load.
