(Repeats story published late on Tuesdau)
* Moves aimed to cap power price hikes
* Carbon tax to hit CEZ
By Roman Gazdik
PRAGUE, Nov 9 (Reuters) - The Czech Republic on Tuesday
halved feed-in tariffs for solar plants opening from 2011 and
approved new solar and carbon taxes to deal with a solar boom
that threatens to send home and business power prices soaring.
The Czech Energy Regulatory Office set a new tariff of 5,500
Czech crowns ($311.3) per megawatt hour for plants connected to
the grid in 2011 with more than 100 kilowatt capacity, down from
12,150 crowns for those connecting in 2010. Plants with a
capacity of 30-100 kW will now receive 5,900 crowns.
Most of the feed-in tariffs will expire in March for newly
built plants bigger than 30 kW and all those on farmland.
Meanwhile, the lower house of the Czech parliament pushed
through a 26 percent tax on solar power revenue and another tax
charging generators 32 percent of the value of carbon emissions
permits granted to them -- originally for free -- in 2011 and
2012 to raise funds to cap power hikes at 5.5 percent.
The solar plant tax is for three years.
"If the government did not do anything, the (power) prices
for businesses would increase by up to 18 percent," Prime
Minister Petr Necas told reporters after the vote.
"This could mean bankruptcy in some cases."
The new tax on the credits given to electricity generators
as part of an EU scheme to limit emissions of greenhouse gases
and combat climate change will mainly burden majority
state-owned CEZ <>, central Europe's biggest power
producer.
The Czech Republic, a country of 10.5 million people, was
the third-biggest solar nation in Europe last year in terms of
new installed capacity due to an investment boom sparked by
generous feed-in tariffs.
In 2010, installations have accelerated ahead of cuts in the
feed-in tariffs. By Nov. 8, the installed capacity was 1,034
megawatts, and energy regulator ERU estimated the number could
hit 1,700 MW by the end of the year.
If this happens, the government plans to tap state coffers
to keep power price increases in line.
"The number 1,600 or 1,700 megawatts is real ... they have a
lot of time to fulfil the requisites," Josef Firt, the ERU
chief, told Reuters.
The Czech Photovoltaic Association said the tax on large
solar plants could force many solar power generators into
bankruptcy, while a group representing investors noted banks had
lent 50 billion crowns to finance the plants.
(Reporting by Roman Gazdik and Jan Korselt, Writing by Michael
Kahn, Editing by )
