At the beginning of the year, we informed you about the new obligations introduced for PV plants built in 2009-2010 by the amendment to the Energy Act, the so-called “Lex RES III”, which will largely come into force on 1 August 2025 (see here, here and here). Among these obligations was the obligation to calculate and report the internal rate of return, which, according to the newly introduced §§ 37a to 37d of Act No. 165/2012 Coll., on Supported Energy Sources and on Amendments to Certain Acts, as amended (the “RES Act“), was to be newly imposed on all PV plants built in 2009-2010 that have a capacity above 30 kWp.
Already at the time of the discussion of the Lex RES III proposal in the Senate, the newly introduced rules were the target of strong criticism, and the Senate proposed to the Chamber of Deputies not to introduce the new rules. However, the House overruled the Senate. Already at the time of the second discussion in the Chamber of Deputies, it was expected that the subsequent amendment to the Energy Act, the so-called “lex gas”, would at least increase the power threshold above which PV plants would be subject to the obligation in order not to burden, for example, small solar installations on the roofs of kindergartens or municipal offices.
In the end, however, “lex gas” went even further. During its discussion, the Senate sent the draft amendment back to the Chamber of Deputies with amendments, one of which was the deletion of the newly introduced obligation to self-assess the internal rate of return. This time the Chamber of Deputies did not object.
Thus, the provisions of Sections 37a to 37d were deleted from the RES Act before the amendment came into force. Therefore, the individual assessment of the profitability for PV plants with a capacity exceeding 30 kWp built in 2009-2010 will not be necessary and the original rules related to the monitoring of the adequacy of the support for solar electricity (sector inquiry, across-the-board setting of limits) will continue to apply.
On 28 March 2023, Members of the European Parliament from the relevant committees adopted an opinion on a new package of measures relating to the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT).
The amendment to the consumer law came into force on January 6th 2023. In practice, this means that a purchase contract concluded today is already subject to the amended consumer law.