CEZ to accelerate construction of solar sources in coming years

Prague, Sept 9 (CTK) - Energy group CEZ will significantly accelerate the construction of solar power plants in the coming years, planning to commission power plants with a capacity of 200 megawatts (MW) next year and more than 500 MW in 2028, CEZ told CTK today.

CEZ intends to focus on large solar farms, for example, and plans to invest up to CZK40bn in renewable energy sources by the end of the decade.

So far this year, the company has commissioned five new solar power plants with a total capacity of 23 MW. By the end of this year, CEZ's portfolio should include photovoltaic power plants with a combined capacity of 240 MW.

"We expect a significant increase in the pace of construction in 2027 and 2028, when new projects will add capacity amounting to hundreds of megawatts," said CEZ board vice chairman Pavel Cyrani.

The overall development of solar power plants in the Czech Republic has been slowing down recently. In the first half of this year, 9,364 photovoltaic power plants were connected to the domestic grid, which is about 28 percent less than in the same period last year. Their installed capacity decreased to 295 megawatts (MW). In total, there were 248,346 solar power plants in the Czech Republic with a capacity of 5.36 gigawatts as of mid-year.

hel/er