<Vítězství v 3. ročníku Solární ligy si zopakovala obec Rusava> <Victory in the 3rd year of the Solar League was repeated by the municipality of Rusava>

Prague - The winner of the main category of the 3rd year of the Solar League of the Czech Republic for 2006 is the municipality of Rusava from the Zlín Region for the third time in a row. The municipality, with 590 inhabitants, has nearly 560 square meters of solar collectors on its territory, of which 500 square meters provide heating for the local swimming pool. This was announced by the organizers of the competition at today's press conference.
    The second place belongs to Boží Dar from the Karlovy Vary Region and the third to the municipality of Pístina from South Bohemia. The rankings for second and third places have also remained unchanged for the third consecutive time.
    The winner in the category of municipalities with five to 50,000 inhabitants is Jindřichův Hradec ahead of Litoměřice and Tachov. In the category of cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, Plzeň won ahead of Ostrava and České Budějovice.
    The Solar League is a competition for cities and municipalities in the use of solar energy, organized by the League of Ecological Alternatives. Registered municipalities receive points for each square meter of installed solar collectors. For greater objectivity, the results are calculated per inhabitant and added to points earned in previous years. Municipalities that do not currently utilize solar energy on their territory would thus have to invest relatively large amounts of money to place among the top spots in the solar league. Rusava needed to install only about 10 square meters of new collectors last year to defend its title.
    In a survey by the European Commission's Eurobarometer conducted two years ago, solar energy was considered by 48 percent of EU citizens as the most suitable substitute for traditional non-renewable energy sources. Among Czech participants in the survey, 41 percent identified solar energy as the most suitable energy source. Nuclear energy would be preferred by 17 percent of Czechs and 12 percent of respondents from the EU.
    The use of solar energy is much more widespread in Western Europe than in the Czech Republic. According to information from the Solar League's website, one company from the area of German Landshut installed solar facilities with a capacity of 2 MWp in an area equivalent in size to our district. Facilities throughout the Czech Republic have roughly a quarter of that capacity.