New tender for solar energy systems announced

The National Development Ministry has announced an HUF 867.2 million tender for the installation of solar energy systems for residential buildings. In defining conditions of the tender, the ministry stated that funds will be awarded for the purchase of solar energy collectors, related accessories and revitalization of relevant building mechanics systems; upper limit for bids is HUF 342,900 per capita.
Tender support, meanwhile, will go to social care and child protection institutions under the auspices of the General Directorate for these establishments and with professional supervision of the Human Resources Ministry.
A previous tender for installation of solar energy systems for individual households, valued at HUF 2.97 billion in total, was held in October 2011; government statistics show that about 4,200 homes received such upgrades via this first tender. Like the earlier call for bidding, the just-announced tender is part of the New Széchenyi Plan’s “Green Investment System.”
Some €280 million (approximately HUF 83.88 billion) has been planned to support renewable energy-related investments within the Széchenyi Plan as part of Hungary’s Renewable Energy Utilization Action Plan to double 2010 levels of gross renewable energy source use by 2020.
According to a Hungarian Investment and Trade Agency report of 2011, less than 1% of renewable energy resources was accounted for by use of solar energy as of 2010, and current projections seek to jump this number to 3% by the end of the decade. The overwhelming majority in this sector is provided by biomass energy, figured at nearly three-quarters of such resources in 2010; this is expected to fall to 50% of the total resources by 2020.