The Chamber of Deputies has already approved the Government’s draft law on accelerating the use of renewable energy sources (“the Bill”) in an accelerated mode in the first reading on 3 June 2025 and it will now be discussed by the Senate.
The Bill transposes the provisions of Directive (EU) No 2018/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources, as amended by Directive No 2023/2413¹ (“RED III Directive”), with the aim of accelerating the use of renewable energy sources (“RES”) in EU Member States. Efforts to accelerate the use of RES have intensified in recent years, and the Bill is thus one of a long series of changes that the regulation of RES has undergone.
The tool leading to acceleration of RES use as introduced by the Bill is in particular the setting‑up the rules for the so-called acceleration areas. These are defined areas in which the approval process for renewable energy projects such as wind and photovoltaic power plants will be significantly accelerated compared to the current situation, while the total time of the approval process should not exceed 12 months. The approval process will also be accelerated for related infrastructure, in particular on-site energy storage facilities and facilities for connecting renewable energy projects to the grid.
Acceleration areas will be defined as areas or corridors in the spatial development plan, spatial development principles or spatial plan, i.e. at the national level, at the level of individual regions and also at the level of municipalities. However, sites important for environmental protection will be excluded from the acceleration zones.
An application for a permit for a renewable energy project will be submitted to the relevant building authority, which will request the necessary binding opinions. Alternatively, the applicant may request the binding opinions himself in advance. The competent authority for issuing a single environmental opinion for renewable energy projects in acceleration areas will always be the regional authority.
One of the other instruments for speeding up the process is the introduction of a fiction of administrative consent for smaller photovoltaic projects. If the administrative authority does not decide within 30 days of the submission of a flawless application on the authorisation of a project concerning a building, a set of buildings or installations designed to generate electricity from solar radiation with a total installed capacity of up to 100 kW, the project will be deemed to be authorised.
The proposal also introduces a new fee for electricity from wind power plants in the amount of CZK 50 per MWh, with the revenue from the fee to be 98 % of the income of the municipality in whose cadastral territory the wind power plant is located, which is supposed to strengthen cooperation between investors and local communities. This is a modification that was submitted as an amendment proposal for inclusion in the relevant legislation already in the so-called “lex gas”, but was eventually moved to the Bill, as it is closely related to the implementation of the RED III Directive.
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Martin Provazník sa podrobnejšie venuje pomerne kurióznemu súdnemu prípadu, ktorý nedávno prebehol médiami a nemal by nikoho nechať chladným, najmä tých, ktorí radi odpovedajú emotikonmi 👍 O čo vlastne išlo?
On October 6, 2022 the European Council issued Regulation (EU) 2022/1854 stipulating the framework for a levy on excessive revenues from electricity sales. The individual member states are to determine the details regarding the Levy, including its final amount and the conditions under which it will apply to electricity.
Arthur Braun: "This is a matter of survival for law firms. They will become more digital, or they will disappear."
