Over 10,000 households paid solar panel subsidies

Over 10,500 homeowners have been paid HUF 22.1bn (EUR 54.18m) in subsidies supporting solar panel and battery storage investments, the Energy Ministry said in a post on social media on Tuesday.

The number of winners in the scheme stands at over 21,000. They will get a total of HUF 86.3bn (EUR 211.59m). The last of the applications for the funding will be evaluated by the spring. The deadline for applying was January 15. So far, a solar panel capacity of 33.2 MW and a battery capacity of 53.7 MWh have been completed in the scheme’s framework. Under the year-long scheme, households could apply for up to HUF 5m (EUR 12,258) in support, covering two-thirds of investment cost.

As we wrote earlier, Hungary tops Europe in utilizing this energy source, details HERE.

Adapting a proven green energy subsidy to the changed market environment

Hungary’s Obligatory Feed-in Tariff (FiT) scheme, which encourages industrial-scale green energy investment, has put it at the forefront of solar generation in Europe. But the cost of maintaining it is rising, partly because of increasingly negative prices during periods of oversupply in sunny hours. To reduce the burden on industrial consumers who bear the extra costs, the government is suspending the tracking of the feed-in tariff for five years. Under a further rule change in the pipeline, owners and operators of investments, many of which have already paid for themselves, will be able to retain their exemption from the Robin Hood tax when they leave the CCCTB system, but will also have other options. The new government decision will help to strengthen the Hungarian economy, the transition to clean energy and the achievement of energy sovereignty.

Under the KÁT scheme, support for renewable electricity production was available until the end of 2016. The state encouraged development by committing to purchase a fixed amount of electricity generated from clean sources at inflation-linked prices, typically for a period of 20-25 years. Most of the entitlements granted were for solar power plants, with a total installed capacity of 3110 MW. The capacity of industrial-scale solar systems in Hungary approached 4,100 megawatts by early 2025. Thus, more than three quarters of the capacity of solar plants above 50 kW not producing for own use was built with support from CCS. They will continue to produce electricity at subsidised prices until 2049. They are expected to reach their peak production this year and maintain it at a broadly stable level until 2035, the government’s official website said.

Thanks in part to the rapid expansion of industrial capacity, solar power accounted for a quarter of domestic electricity generation last year. Hungary has the highest share in Europe, ahead of Greece. The increase in the use of green energy is a welcome development in greening the energy sector and protecting the environment. At the same time, the spread of weather-dependent renewables poses new challenges for system operators. For example, market prices for electricity are increasingly pushed into negative territory during periods of oversupply. There were 93 hours in Hungary in 2023 when the electricity exchange price was not above zero, which was already more than the total of the previous 10 years. The market revenue from the sale of electricity at the obligatory price will also fall. The difference between the subsidised off-take and the available sales price will be charged by the system operator to industrial consumers.