Daniela Dinescu
Managing Director, PNE Wind România
Representative of the Group of Wind Farms Developers “Energy for the Future”
In Romania there is a significant number of companies who develop wind parks, which made major investments, having projects found in advanced development stages, but which due to the legislative instability that led to the blockage of the support scheme since 2013, will not be able to put these projects into operation by the closure of the scheme on December 31 2016, according to Law 220/2008.
At present, the developing companies are in a critical situation and are not able to benefit from the provisions of Law 220/2008, on one hand, and they do not have any investment perspective for the next period, on the other hand. These factors will certainly lead to the bankruptcy of the developing companies and the loss of colossal invested amounts, if the state will not take immediate reparatory measures.
We welcome the latest steps made by the Ministry of Energy regarding the drafting of an Energy Strategy and the amendment by OUG of L220/2008, but considering the commitments of Romania and the worldwide efforts for reducing the greenhouse emissions, we believe that Romania should encourage, on medium and long term, the investments in renewable energy.
In this respect, we believe it would be necessary an extension by December 2019 of the possibility of accreditation of new capacities, with a limitation of the number of MW installed annually, within the limit of reaching the targets undertaken for 2020. Therefore if, due to various reasons, the reaching of targets is in danger, we should be able to use the projects in development.
At the same time, in order to follow the world trend regarding the reduction of pollution and the creation of a healthy environment, the investments in renewable energy must also continue after 2020. Therefore it is necessary to implement a new legal framework in which the companies should continue the investments. This also assumes a firm commitment of the state for a legislative stability, predictable annual quotas, a transparent and honest system.
We are convinced that in the future we will speak only about renewable energy, but this also means a support for those who work in this industry. We live historic times. On the 4th of November, the Paris Agreement, on the climate changes entered into force, and Romania cannot make steps back regarding the international commitments on the reduction of greenhouse gases.