The operation of renewable sources is ensured

Press release of The Chamber of Renewable Energy Resources from Monday, the 16th March  

The Chamber of Renewable Energy Sources welcomes the granting of an exception for the cross-border movement of persons to ensure the operation of the energy infrastructure. At the same time, it appreciates the rapid reaction of Minister Havlíček and the Government. When the current crisis is subsided, we would like to draw attention to the economic opportunity with high added value that the Czech Republic is still losing due to the low interest of governments in renewable sources.

Service repairs as well as commissioning of renewable sources are often carried out by employees of foreign manufacturing companies. They have their nearest regional service centres mainly in neighbouring Germany and Austria. The government adopted an exception at the weekend that will allow these workers to come to the Czech Republic. This applies in particular to wind farms and parts of biogas and biomass sources or small hydro power plants coming from abroad. In Austria, Germany and also Poland there are regional service centres that provide support to Czech branches or directly repair major failures of heat pumps and photovoltaic power plants, batteries and inverters.

„We are in a difficult situation and therefore we appreciate the rapid solution to the problem and the inclusion of an exception allowing cross-border travel for technicians specialized in renewable energy sources, who are irreplaceable. This regards trips of employees of foreign producers to us and service of Czech technologies abroad. We have been dealing with specific cases of wind, water, solar or biogas sources since the weekend,” said Štěpán Chalupa, Chairman of the Chamber of Renewable Energy Sources.

“Of course, this is not a question of today or the coming days, but once the current crisis has subsided, we believe in creating the conditions that foreign manufacturers should also choose the Czech Republic to set up service branches and regional centers. Manufacturers do not want to waste their time investing in branches in markets with an unclear perspective,“ added Chalupa.

The problem of cross-border movement of persons also concerns companies producing for renewable energetics in the Czech Republic. They install and service their equipment abroad. A number of leading Czech manufacturers are among the members of the Chamber of Renewable Sources, for example:
● Třebíčská TTS produces technological units for biomass heating plants and heating systems
● Regulus (heat pumps, heat recovery technology, solar collectors and accumulation tanks).
● Hydrohrom is one of the Czech manufacturers of water turbines.
However, hundreds of companies produce for clean energetics all over the Czech Republic. The most important include Atmos (solid fuel boilers for households, one of the largest European manufacturers), SIAG (towers and beams for wind power plants; Chrudim) or Mavel (hydropower plants; Benešov).

„The Czech Republic has a good reputation in industry and we know from detailed analyzes that we have very good geographical conditions for the development of all types of renewable sources. Renewable sources mean the development of state-of-the-art technologies with high added value,” added Chalupa.

Source: https://www.komoraoze.cz