Renewable energy policy database and support

Except for electricity generated from geothermal power technologies, all renewable electricity generating technologies are eligible for this support scheme (Chapter III Art. 13 Par. 3, Chapter III Art. 20 Par. 2, 3 Law on Energy from Renewable Sources, Chapter II Item 4. Resolution No. 827/2012).

In Lithuania, renewable electricity generating technologies with the total installed capacity of up to and including 10 kW are promoted through a sliding feed-in premium, i.e. the difference between the guaranteed tariff and the sale price for electricity generated from renewable energy sources. This price shall not be lower than the average market price of the previous month and shall be calculated in accordance with the procedure set by the NCC (Chapter III Art. 20 Par. 2 and 14 Law on Energy from Renewable Sources). The guaranteed tariff for RES installations whose installed capacity does not exceed 10 kW is set by the NCC and is paid for up to 50 % of electricity generated from renewable energy sources during a calendar year (the so called ‘surplus electricity’) (Chapter III Art. 20 Par. 14 Law on Energy from Renewable Sources). The guaranteed tariffs are reassessed by the NCC every 6 months, taking into account the actual amount of electricity generated during the previous calendar year, the total installed capacity of the already operational RES installations and the total capacity of the RES installations under construction (Chapter III Art. 20 Par. 6 Law on Energy from Renewable Sources). The following tariffs for RES installations with a generating capacity up to and including 10 kW are set by the NCC by the end of 2018 (Resolution No. O3E-171/2018):

Entitled party: The persons entitled to the purchase of electricity exported to the grid are the operators of RES installations (Chapter III Art. 20 Law on Energy from Renewable Sources).

Obligated party: Surplus electricity generated by RES installations of up to and including 10 kW is purchased on contractual basis by an independent electricity supplier. In case no agreement could be reached with the independent supplier or at the request of the consumer, the distribution system operator, supplying more than 100 000 consumers, is obliged to purchase the surplus renewable electricity, based on the agreement with the consumer (Chapter V Item 21. Resolution No. 827/2012).

The Law on Energy from Renewable Sources introduced a cap for sliding feed-in premium payments for each eligible technology. This means that until 2020 only a limited amount of electricity produced with a particular technology will be supported through the sliding feed-in premium scheme. Until 2020 the following caps are set:

• For wind power plants: 500 MW (Chapter III Art. 13 Par. 3 Item 1 Law on Energy from Renewable Sources)

• For solar power plants (excluding plants of up to 30kW authorised to expand electricity generation capacity according to the applications submitted on 31 December 2012 at the latest): 10 MW (Chapter III Art. 13 Par. 3 Item 2 Law on Energy from Renewable Sources)

• For hydro-power plants: 128 MW (Chapter III Art. 13 Par. 3 Item 3 Law on Energy from Renewable Sources)

• For biogas and biomass power plants: 105 MW (Chapter III Art. 13 Par. 3 Item 4 Law on Energy from Renewable Sources) According to the NCC, all these caps have already been reached and therefore no financial support under the sliding feed-in premium scheme for new RES installations is currently available.

For RES installations of up to 10 kW the feed-in premium shall be paid for 12 years from the issue of the power generation licence (Chapter III Art. 20 Par. 14 Law on Energy from Renewable Sources).