The new wave of renewable energy projects that will be installed in the coming years in Romania will be stronger than the first, as a result of funding coming from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), says Iuliana Pănescu, head of the treasury division of Premier Energy.
“There is a great appetite in this area, as well as the interest of the banks to finance these projects,” Pănescu said, according to Agerpres.
The current interest in renewables can be compared with that in the real estate sector from 2014-2015, believes the representative of Premier Energy.
Currently, in Romania there are renewable energy capacities of about 4,500 MW, the vast majority built in the period 2008-2013, when the scheme of support through green certificates came into force.
“Premier Energy also has plans in the green energy sector. The company already owns a 34 MW wind farm in Stejaru (Tulcea). We want to have 200 MW capacity in 2022-2023 – wind, solar and cogeneration, for balancing. Also in the next 2-3 years, 500 MW at the regional level – we are looking at Bulgaria, Hungary, Croatia, Greece. So far we have not submitted projects to access money from the PNRR in this session,” Panescu said.
If the Dobrogea area, with the greatest potential, is already mostly occupied by wind farms, the next area of interest for this sector is the south of Moldova, Galaţi, Brăila. For photovoltaic panels, the west of the country has become very attractive.
“The problem with the network takeover of energy from renewable energy capacity remains, we have the same infrastructure for decades. Transelectrica has an investment plan to integrate the new capacity and we hope it will fulfill it. Another challenge is the lack specialists in the sector and we want to start internship programs,” says Pănescu.
Premier Energy recently acquired the Alive Capital investment fund, specialized in renewable energy projects, which also provides integrated management services to Romanian renewable energy producers.
Premier Energy is the third largest gas distributor in Romania, after Engie and E.ON, and in the top 5 suppliers, with over 110,000 customers. The company is also interested in listing on the stock exchange, when the context will be favorable.
Other plans include building new distribution networks to connect new consumers.