Renewable energy: Czechia lags behind in EU

In Austria, renewables accounted for 78% of electricity consumption in 2020. Within the EU, only Sweden is above the 70% mark alongside Austria. In the Czech Republic, the share of renewables was less than 15%. Only Luxembourg, Hungary, Cyprus and Malta had a lower share in the EU.

“The Czech Republic lost an entire decade of renewable energy development after the disappointment of the failure of the solar boom in 2010. We are still paying the financial consequences today and this contributes to the discrediting of renewable energies, even if the situation on the energy market is completely different. The classic opposition of Czech municipalities to wind turbines is also a problem. From this point of view, we have a completely different position from that of Austria, which, as a landlocked country, uses wind energy much more intensively,” Jiří Gavor told Czech news agency ČTK. , analyst for ENA and director of the Association of Independent Energy Suppliers.

For the latter, the Czech Republic can hardly compete with Austria and Sweden in the use of their huge hydropower potential and wind farms. “However, even with our natural limitations, we could do much more in the area of ​​renewable energy. We hope that the new government program will create the conditions for faster development,” he hoped.

According to data published by the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade, the share of renewable energy in Czech consumption was 17.3% at the end of November last year. Renewable energies accounted for 14.8% of electricity consumption, 9.4% of transport consumption and 23.5% of heating and air conditioning.

Besides Austria and Sweden, Denmark, Portugal, Croatia and Latvia had more than half of their electricity consumption coming from renewable sources. The share of renewable energies was 45% in Germany, 23% in Slovakia and 16% in Poland.