The two most common reasons that, despite subsidies, still discourage many homeowners from acquiring photovoltaics are the high initial investment and complicated administration. This was confirmed by a November public opinion survey conducted by Ipsos for Energetický holding Malina.
The difficulty with high costs was confirmed by 85 percent of respondents. In the second place, people cited complicated administration (68 percent), and the only third is the delivery date of the solar power plant (60 percent).
The average price of a solar power plant is around 400–500 thousand crowns. This is an indicative investment for a family house with a floor area of 150 square meters and an annual consumption of six to thirteen MWh. According to the companies, the return on investment now takes five to ten years.
The maximum subsidy from the New Green Savings Programme for one family house is CZK 200,000 plus CZK 5,000 for project preparation.
Building savings will help
It can also be combined with a 30,000 subsidy for a charging station for an electric car. Thus, if the applicant installs a larger PV plant with batteries and one charging station, he can receive a subsidy of CZK 235,000.
The subsidies are reimbursed to the property owner. They are paid retrospectively, so the applicant either pays for the entire installation from their funds first or takes out a loan for the period before receiving the subsidy.
For example, in a building society. For instance, Buřinka offers a loan for photovoltaics without needing a mortgage on the property. The interest rate is 0.3 percent lower than a standard renovation loan.
When using the loan, 15 percent of the interest paid can be deducted from taxes yearly. A heat pump can be financed in the same way.
“You can also get a subsidy of up to CZK 100,000 from the New Green Savings Programme for the purchase of a heat pump for a hot water heating system with hot water preparation,” said Miroslav Majer, head of Hyponamir.cz.
Banks also have special loan programs for solar systems.
What matters is the consumption
A family house usually has twelve to sixteen photovoltaic panels on the roof, an eight-kilowatt inverter, and a 10-kilowatt-hour battery to store the energy produced during the day.
With installation, this combination comes out to 530,000. “But we don’t count on the amount the household will earn in overflow. These are relatively small amounts. That is why it is important to size the plant at the beginning so that overflows are kept to a minimum, and the household uses the energy itself,” Zero Living emphasizes in its manuals.