Page 19 - Buy Russia - bne IntelliNews monthly magazine April 2017

bne April 2017 Companies & Markets I 19
yearly bill for FiTs by 2012. "We ended up with 2,000 MW worth of installed capacity generating 2 TWh of electricity per year in just a few years," Karel Polanecky from Friends of the Earth Czech Republic tells bne IntelliNews.
The government eventually scrapped the FiTs for new installa- tions in 2013, although installations built before that year will continue to benefit from government subsidies for up to 20 years. This has not interfered with the country's ability to meet its renewable energy target for 2020, which is low at just 13%, from the existing solar and wind power installations and, more importantly, from biomass and biogas.
Small and progressive Slovenia, which also adopted a FiT system, has had a similarly chequered past with wind and solar power, Greenpeace campaigner Dejan Savic explains in an interview with bne IntelliNews.
Slovenians do not have the same feeling of empowerment when it comes to their energy as the Germans do, he says. "Historically, state-owned companies have managed energy generation in the country, so Slovenians have always had
the attitude that someone else should be in charge of it. And when you let state-owned companies manage energy, you get a diverse group of interests putting pressure on the system to maintain the status quo," he says.
The majority of the renewable energy installed capacity in
Slovenia – some 260 MW – was built between 2009 and 2012, thanks to a FiT system that, just like in the Czech Republic, attracted a great deal of early investment but proved to be too costly for the government to support.
In response, the government cut FiTs by 25% across the board for all new installations, and as of 2015 it stopped subsidising solar power altogether, which means that very few solar parks have been built since 2012. As for small-scale, rooftop PV systems, the lower purchasing power in Slovenia means that homeowners may find their cost prohibitive.
National governments across the EU are now looking further ahead as they negotiate their renewable energy targets for 2030 with Brussels. Unlike the 2020 goals, which were delin- eated for each individual member country, the 2030 target of 27% is a bloc-wide one.
However, Brussels may fail to provide enough of an incentive for CEE to embrace solar and wind power as part of their long-term energy strategies, interviewees agree, as the target is considered to be a very unambitious one. Policy makers in the region are thus more likely to prioritise the same power producers they have so far – large investors and powerful lobbies – to the detriment of smaller investors and households. As a result, CEE’s transition to cleaner energy and a decentralised grid may remain a pipe dream for the time being.
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