The Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade, in collaboration with the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Regional Development, has drafted a law aimed at accelerating the use of renewable energy sources.
This law will facilitate the creation of the so-called acceleration zones, which will streamline and expedite the permitting process for the construction of wind farms, solar parks and associated infrastructure and storage stations.
“Renewable sources will be a key component of our energy sector alongside nuclear power. They enhance our energy security and lower energy costs,” stated the Minister of Industry and Trade, Jozef Síkela. “Therefore, our government is taking steps to boost electricity production from these affordable sources. Acceleration zones represent a significant step forward, simplifying and speeding up the approval process for constructing solar and wind power plants. These zones will primarily include areas with high electricity generation potential and minimal environmental impact, such as former industrial sites, brownfields and mines.”
The primary objective of the draft law is to accelerate the adoption of renewable energy by establishing acceleration zones, where projects will be approved under a special simplified regime. Initially, these zones will focus on facilities that generate electricity from solar and wind energy, as these technologies are expected to see the largest increase in installed capacity by 2030.
“The development of wind energy has stagnated, so we aim to facilitate the reasonable construction of new renewable energy sources that meet both energy needs and the interests of local residents and the landscape,” commented the Minister of the Environment, Petr Hladík. “The acceleration zones will address major permitting issues before companies and municipalities agree on the placement of wind or solar power plants. Project approval should not take more than a year. We are mapping the Czech landscape using around 60 different restriction maps, addressing all buffer zones to align with nature and landscape protection, regional development policies, transport structures and other constraints.”
The appropriate locations for power plants will be determined based on spatial planning. According to the proposal, acceleration zones should be defined at all three planning levels to ensure coordination of all public interests. These levels include municipal territorial plans, regional territorial development principles and national territorial development plans. When selecting locations, criteria based on legal requirements for protecting natural resources and the environment will also be important.
In conjunction with the relevant level of spatial planning documentation, a territorial measure will be developed for each acceleration zone, outlining specific conditions for the area. This documentation, along with all spatial measures, will undergo an environmental impact assessment (SEA). The regional office will always be the authority responsible for issuing a unified environmental opinion. This proposed procedure simplifies the process by pre-defining conditions for acceleration zones, thereby reducing the need to address a wide range of issues at the level of specific projects.
