The Czech lower house of parliament has approved plans to introduce retroactive cuts on FITs granted to solar installations.

The change, first proposed in October, still needs approval from the upper house to be legally binding. It would require solar plants built between 2009 and 2010 to produce annual profitability calculations that will be used to judge if they should get state aid.

It also extends the scope of the calculation to the full lifetime of a plant rather than just the period in which state support is granted.

Jan Krčmář, the executive director of the Czech Solar Association (Solární Asociace) said the changes will “set a dangerous precedent for investors in Czechia, as they change the rules of the game … Given that these changes were not proposed by the ministry in charge of energy, but the finance ministry, they mean that now any ministry could – without consultation or proper legal scrutiny – push through substantial law changes in any sector.”

Krčmář added that the proposals “show the total lack of knowledge about the energy sector at the ministry of finance.”

“One provision states that energy producers have to declare their income for the next 10 or 20 years, which means that they are expected to know the price of electricity in Czechia in 10 or 20 years time,” he explained. “No person with at least a basic knowledge of the energy sector or the economy in general would come up with such nonsense. But nevertheless, this nonsense might be part of Czech energy law soon and helps paint a picture for investors about the country they might be considering to invest in.”

Krčmář said that the Czech Solar Association hopes the upper house of parliament “will be more rational in their approach and refuse the planned law changes that plunge large parts of the renewable energy sector in Czechia into confusion and chaos.”

The Czech government has said it needs to limit state aid to shore up the budget.