Portiva Group, with a portfolio of wind and solar parks with a total capacity of 30 megawatts, is set to build more solar farms in the Czech Republic. Although its focus in recent years has been on real estate and IT, the company now sees the time as opportune for investment in photovoltaic parks. It plans to build at least three, reports Hn.cz.
During the first half of 2023, Portiva Group plans to build three solar power plants with a total capacity of ten megawatts in the Czech Republic, specifically in the Hradec Králové and South Bohemia regions. "We have not built solar power plants for the last eight years, but now we have already applied for a building permit and connection to the distribution system," the group's CEO Pavel Svoreň told Hn.cz. The total investment is CZK 250 million (€10.3 million), and Portiva is counting on a subsidy from the Modernisation Fund. The group also aims to expand its renewable portfolio by 20 megawatts a year. In addition to its construction, Portiva is also looking for acquisition opportunities.
The massive development of solar parks in the Czech Republic is hampered by the capacity of the distribution grid and high land prices in suitable locations, according to Svoreň. In 2022 alone, the trio of local electricity distributors CEZ, EG. D and PRE have registered 76,000 applications for connection of 17.2 gigawatts of solar power, almost nine times the currently installed capacity, and not all of them will be connected. The situation will hopefully improve at least partially soon. Czech energy giant CEZ announced on 12 December 2022 that it had managed to secure a record €790 million loan from the European Investment Bank. The money is intended specifically for the modernisation of the grid, which the semi-state firm says could connect 2.2 gigawatts of power.
But Portiva does not want to limit itself to the Czech Republic. " The solar irradiation in Spain is higher than in the Czech Republic, and there are also significant areas available that do not disturb the landscape," Svoreň justified the entry into the Spanish market. The situation is more complicated in the wind energy sector, which the Brno group started with before photovoltaics. It has had projects in the pipeline for years to build 150 megawatts of wind turbines. This represents almost half of the output of existing wind resources in the Czech Republic. However, Svoreň does not expect them to be realised on a larger scale, and there are no plans to build new wind farms, at least in the foreseeable future. Construction is usually blocked by opposition from local governments or local citizens. "We are waiting for a change in the construction law that should simplify the permitting process," Svoreň said.
