Study: Czechia continues to lag significantly behind in the EU in the use of solar and wind energy
Prague – The Czech Republic continues to lag significantly behind most EU countries in the use of solar and wind energy. While in the Union electricity generation from sun and wind together accounted for a 30 percent share last year and for the first time surpassed the share of fossil sources, in the Czech Republic this share was 6.6 percent. The pace of growth in the share of solar in the Czech Republic has been slowing recently, and the situation is even worse for wind energy. This follows from an analysis by the Ember institute, which CTK has at its disposal.
Electricity generation from the sun in the Czech Republic rose to 4.4 terawatt hours (TWh) last year, compared to 2.3 TWh in 2020. Although the share of photovoltaic power plants in production has more than doubled over the past five years to six percent last year, the pace of growth has recently been fading, according to the analysis.
“Although generation from solar energy in 2025 increased by approximately 0.8 TWh, the year-on-year increase in its share was lower than in 2024. This is worrying, because the Czech Republic still has considerable untapped solar potential and remains below the EU average in the use of renewable sources,” said Ember think tank analyst Tatiana Mindeková. Without a renewed growth rate, she said, there is a risk that the progress so far will not lead to a deeper transformation of the energy mix. “The Czech Republic will fall behind the EU in the transformation of the energy sector,” she warned.
The Czech Republic is lagging even more significantly in the use of wind energy. Its share in domestic production has long stagnated at around one percent. The EU average, meanwhile, was almost 17 percent last year.
The combination of wind and sun is, according to the analysis, very effective. “When weak winds blew in spring 2025, solar power plants compensated for it – and the share of renewables in the EU remained stable. But the Czech Republic does not have this safety net. We have only photovoltaics – while wind energy here is stagnating. Yet it is precisely wind that is the key to cheaper electricity,” said Jiří Beranovský from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague (ČVUT). (22 January)
