Hungary’s solar feed-in halt threatens EU funds access

In October 2022, the Hungarian government introduced a moratorium on solar panel feed-in. However, according to a package of proposals issued by the European Commission at the end of November, Hungary will have to lift it by the end of 2024 at the latest if the country wishes to receive EU funds to improve its energy security system.

The state secretary responsible for energy and climate policy says that the system must be improved to ensure energy security. To prefinance this, the government would use EU funds, reports ATV.

Introduction of the moratorium

In October, Gergely Gulyás, the minister of the Prime Minister’s Office, explained the decision to introduce the moratorium by saying that the grid would be overloaded if the feed-in of solar panel systems to the grid was not suspended.

The moratorium did not apply to those who already had installed solar panels or were planning to do so, and had submitted their application to connect to the grid by 31 October 2022. However, those who submitted their application after that date are not be able to connect to the grid at present.

Read also: This is why fuel in Hungary is the most expensive in the region

The European Commission’s proposal

The European Commission submitted a package of proposals in November 2022, which also included the moratorium introduced by the Hungarian government. The European Commission submitted a package of proposals in November 2022, which also included a moratorium in Hungary. Regarding the moratorium, it states that the halt must be lifted by 31 December 2024 at the latest. If the government fails to do so, Hungary will not receive the grants from the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). This would mean losing more than HUF 2300 billion (more than EUR 5.8 billion) in subsidies.

Attila Steiner, state secretary responsible for energy and climate policy spoke about the case on Kossuth Radio’s Jó reggelt Magyarország! (Good morning Hungary!) programme on Monday.

Basically, we want to finance part of this with EU RRF funds. And until the funds come in, the government has decided to prefinance these projects so that they can be implemented as soon as possible,

Steiner said.