CEZ, a.s. (CEZ) has increased its power generation from renewable sources by 9% to 1.3 terawatt-hour (TWh) in 2008. The power produced was sufficient for 370,000 households. But renewable sources contribute less than 3% of the total power production. In 2008, CEZ generated over 60 TWh of electricity. Hydroelectric power plants produced around 981 gigawatt hour (GWh) of electricity in 2008, nearly 3% more than previous year.

Biomass generation grew by a third in a year-on-year comparison to 327 GWh, covering annual consumption of more than 93,000 households.

In a couple of years, one million MWh of electricity is expected to be produced by burning biomass, or three times (the volume of) last year’s production, CEZ Spokesman Martin Schreier said.

Solar power plants in the CEZ group generated 8 megawatt hour.

In 2009, CEZ also expects wind parks to generate some power.

CEZ wants to invest CZK30 billion in the next 15 years into the expansion of green facilities, with two-thirds to go for building wind parks and the rest to be invested into construction and upgrading hydroelectric power plants and biomass facilities.

The country has targeted to produce 8% of power from renewable sources by 2010, while in 2008 it was around 4%.

Coal-fired power plants, for instance, generated 43 TWh or almost two-thirds of the country’s power production. Nuclear facilities supplied 25 TWh to the power grid, more than 32% of total production.

The company had generated 981 GWh from hydroelectric power plants in 2008, up 2.9%, compared with the 954 GWh produced in 2007.

The company had generated 327 GWh from biomass power plants in 2008, up 31.2%, compared with the 249 GWh produced in 2007.

Solar power production remained the same at 8 GWh.