Representatives of the photovoltaic industry: Reducing the support scheme for renewable energy could block investments of EUR 4bn

Romania will lose EUR 4bn if the authorities change the support scheme for the renewable energy production, the representatives of the Romanian Photovoltaic Industry Association (RPIA) claim. “There are four billions of euros waiting at the borders to be invested in Romanian projects. Probably they won’t. (…) Any change will bring instability and lack of competitiveness”, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of RPIA, Doru Voicu, stated on Thursday. He added that approximately 4,000 people work in the renewable energy industry in Romania, of which about 1,000 in the photovoltaic sector. According to Voicu, last year the state collected EUR 500mln from renewables. Minister Delegate for Energy Constantin Nita has recently stated that the Government would change the law on granting green certificates, arguing that Romanian industry cannot be destroyed for the sake of the renewable industry. Investors in renewable energy production are precisely attracted by the support scheme, one of the most generous in Europe. Thus, the companies producing energy from alternative sources receive free of charge from the state green certificates, whose number varies depending on the technology. Green certificates are granted for the amount of energy produced. The legislation forces suppliers to buy these certificates from producers. The cost with the acquisition of such certificates is reflected in the final invoices to consumers, so the electricity price has increased and continues to increase. On the other hand, the cost of technologies for producing alternative energy has decreased. According to the latest available data, Romania has wind plants with an installed power of 1,600MW, photovoltaic units of 50MW, biomass-fired power plants of 44MW and micro hydropower plants with powers below 10MW of 453MW. These facilities account for more than 10% o the national energy production capacity. At the same time, wind parks of 700MW, micro hydropower stations of 2MW and biomass units of 1MW are being tested. Other hundreds of projects are in various phases of approval and construction, but their capacities exceed by far the possibilities of the energy transmission networks to take them over and include them in the final consumption.