Czechia rewrote its building law and then rewrote its subsidy in the same eighteen months. Permits now run under the 2021 building act, direct grants for photovoltaics on family homes are gone, and the well — not the array — is the item that takes the longest to get approved, because Czech law treats it as a water structure with its own procedure and its own expert report.
Key number
€0.3217/kWh
Household electricity in the second half of 2025, above the European average of €0.2896. Hardware is cheap here and power is not, which is the whole case for self-supply in a country with a poor December.
The new stavební zákon
Act No. 283/2021 Sb., the new building act, came in staged: from 1 January 2024 for selected buildings and from 1 July 2024 for everything else. An application lodged after 1 July 2024 is judged under the new rules, and a family house that was not notified as complete by 30 June 2024 is signed off under them too.
The stated purpose is to simplify permitting, unify the procedures and strengthen the municipality’s role over its own territory. What has not changed is the underlying gate: the municipal spatial plan decides what a parcel may carry, and withdrawing land from the agricultural land fund is a separate consent that runs alongside the permit.
Source: Act No. 283/2021 Sb. (stavební zákon) as published by the Ministry of Regional Development, and Czech Chamber of Chartered Engineers guidance on the transitional provisions, read August 2026
The výchozí revize
Act No. 250/2021 Sb. makes the operator of a designated technical device responsible for holding a valid inspection report. For a new installation or a major reconstruction that means the initial inspection — the výchozí revize — and the installation may not be put into service without it. Any defect found has to be cleared before the report is issued.
Only a revizní technik may sign it, holding the §8 certificate under Government Regulation No. 194/2022 Sb. and an authorisation from the Technical Inspection of the Czech Republic. Test intervals afterwards come from ČSN 33 1500 and ČSN 33 2000-6 ed. 2 and depend on the environment the installation sits in.
Source: Act No. 250/2021 Sb., Government Regulation No. 194/2022 Sb. and ČSN 33 2000-6 ed. 2, as set out in Czech electrical-inspection guidance, read August 2026
The sun you actually get
At optimum fixed tilt, Prague averages 3.75 kWh per square metre per day across the year and 1.39 in December. Brno in South Moravia is slightly better annually at 3.84 and slightly worse in December at 1.33, because the Moravian winter inversions sit lower and longer than Bohemia’s.
December is 37 per cent of the annual daily average in Prague and 35 per cent in Brno. On that split a year-round Czech system carries a bank sized for several days rather than one, and a generator or a wood stove takes the January load that the array cannot.
Source: PVGIS 5.3 (JRC), SARAH3 database 2005–2023, optimum fixed tilt at Prague and Brno, read August 2026
What a build costs installed
A 6 kWp system starts at Kč 150,000 without storage and Kč 280,000 with it. A standard 7–10 kWp system with a battery is quoted at Kč 320,000–420,000 before any support, with the battery itself accounting for Kč 100,000–160,000 of that.
Against household electricity at €0.3217 per kWh in the second half of 2025 the arithmetic works better here than the December sun suggests, because the saving is on an expensive unit. What has changed is that the state no longer pays part of the bill.
Source: Czech 2026 turnkey photovoltaic pricing; Eurostat nrg_pc_204 for the 2025 second-half electricity price, read August 2026
A well is a water structure
Section 55 of the water act, No. 254/2001 Sb., classifies a well as a vodní dílo — a water structure — so it needs the water authority’s permission, and the authority decides in one procedure on both the structure and the abstraction of groundwater.
The file has to include a hydrogeological assessment prepared by a responsible practitioner in hydrogeology, covering the origin of the water, the character and depth of its flow, the extent to which neighbouring groundwater sources would be affected, and a proposed minimum groundwater level. In practice that means a hydrogeologist and an authorised water engineer before a driller, and it is the long lead item on a Czech off-grid build.
Source: Water Act No. 254/2001 Sb. §55 and Czech well-permitting practice on the required hydrogeological assessment, read August 2026
The catch: the grant became a loan
Nová zelená úsporám stopped taking family-home applications in autumn 2025 when the year’s allocation ran out ahead of schedule. From 2026 the programme is an instrument rather than a grant: direct subsidy survives only in the low-income Light strand, and photovoltaics are no longer separately subsidised at all.
Everyone else gets an interest-free loan, with the state covering the interest and the management fees and the household repaying only the principal — up to Kč 2 million for a full renovation and Kč 750,000 for partial work. Applications open on 25 June 2026 and run to 31 October 2029 or until the funds are gone. Any quote that still nets off a photovoltaic grant is out of date.
Source: Czech reporting on the 2026 Nová zelená úsporám changes: suspended grants, the interest-free loan, its ceilings and the 25 June 2026 to 31 October 2029 window, read August 2026
Common questions
Which building law applies to my permit in Czechia?
Act No. 283/2021 Sb. It took effect for selected buildings on 1 January 2024 and for everything else on 1 July 2024, and an application lodged after that date is judged under it. A family house not notified as complete by 30 June 2024 is also signed off under the new rules.
What does it take to drill a well?
More than a driller. Section 55 of the water act treats a well as a water structure, so the water authority decides on the well and the abstraction in one procedure, and the application has to carry a hydrogeological assessment by a responsible hydrogeologist covering the origin and depth of the water, the effect on neighbouring sources and a proposed minimum groundwater level.
Is there still a subsidy for solar in Czechia?
Not for photovoltaics on a family home. Applications were suspended in autumn 2025 when the allocation ran out, and from 2026 direct grants survive only in the low-income Light strand. Everyone else gets an interest-free loan — up to Kč 2 million for a full renovation, Kč 750,000 for partial work — with applications opening 25 June 2026 and running to 31 October 2029.
Where these figures come from
- Ministry of Regional Development — Act No. 283/2021 Sb., the building act, and its staged entry into force — read August 2026
- Czech Chamber of Chartered Engineers (ČKAIT) — transitional provisions of the new building act and what changed for sign-off from July 2024 — read August 2026
- QPJ — electrical inspection: Act No. 250/2021 Sb., the initial inspection before commissioning, the §8 certificate under Government Regulation No. 194/2022 Sb. and the TIČR authorisation — read August 2026
- TZB-info — well permitting under §55 of Water Act No. 254/2001 Sb. and the required hydrogeological assessment — read August 2026
- solarkalkulacka.cz — 2026 Czech turnkey pricing for systems with and without storage — read August 2026
- Pešek & Mudra — the 2026 change of Nová zelená úsporám from grant to interest-free loan, the ceilings and the application window — read August 2026
- PVGIS 5.3 (Joint Research Centre) — SARAH3 database, 2005–2023, optimum fixed tilt: annual and December daily irradiation for the named locations — read August 2026
- Eurostat nrg_pc_204 — household electricity price, band DC (2,500–4,999 kWh a year), all taxes included, second half of 2025 — read August 2026
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