Czech Republic - wind power plants produce 132% more power in 2006

Czech wind power plants produced 49.4 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity last year, up 132 percent on the year, according to an annual report published by the Energy Regulatory Office (ERU). Installed output was twice as high at 44 megawatts (MW), but still it is just a fraction of the country's electricity sources. Wind energy covered the annual consumption of about 14,000 households.

This year's wind energy production is projected to rise on the launch of new sources and very windy weather in the first half of the year. Some of the operators say the production increased by up to 40 percent in Jan-June, compared with the same year-ago period. Ustecky region in northern Bohemia has nearly 30 percent of the total installed output capacity, and Olomoucky region in central Moravia has 20 percent.

Companies are increasingly interested in investment in the new wind power plants despite the fact that the country's conditions for such production are not good, some of the experts say. Investors plan to build new wind resources with installed output at 1,200 MW in the next few years, which is the capacity of one unit at the nuclear power plant Temelin in southern Bohemia.