Lithuania raises net metering size limit for businesses and farmers

The Lithuanian government has announced it will now include businesses and farmers among the legal entities entitled to install PV systems between 10 kW and 100 kW in size under the country’s net metering scheme.

Prior to the new rules, which came into effect on November 1, the only legal entities allowed to install such PV systems were public institutions, like schools and hospitals, Vitas Maciulis, president of the Lithuanian Solar Energy Association (LSEA), told pv magazine. He added that private citizens's entitlements will remain in the 10 kW limit.

In addition to expanding the rules for businesses and farmers, the Lithuanian government has introduced new provisions to simplify some technical limitations and administrative procedures. For instance, PV projects up to 5 kW are now exempt from obtaining any permissions or approved design.

The net metering scheme, which is funded through a green certificate trading system, is expected to bring around 200 MW of PV power online by 2020. However, Maciulis believes that, at least for 2017, growth will be limited to around 5 MW, which while small, would still represent an improvement on the 3 MW installed over the past two years.

Last week, the Lithuanian government released a new energy strategy that will have renewables at its core and is expected to see an increasing role of prosumers. In March, Macilius told pv magazine, “ … after implementation of the new law and the reduction of requirements for prosumers, we expect good perspectives for households and small businesses starting from the end of 2017.”

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