Romania is currently in much the same situation as it was ten years ago in terms of the number of renewable energy production units, but the new Contract for Difference (CfD) mechanism could stimulate an increase in these investments, said Cătălin Stancu, Senior Expert at Horváth.
“In the three years of implementation of Law 220, Romania has installed 3 GW of wind and 1.3 GW of solar. These units are starting to approach the end of their lifespan. So in the next 3-4 years they need to be modernized. Basically, we are more or less the same as in 2013, except for photovoltaic installations on roofs,” Stancu explained at the Energy Strategy Summit 2024, organized by Energynomics.
In 2014, the support scheme changed, which led to stagnation in the installation of renewable units until 2022. It was only in 2023 that investments resumed, but they were minimal, i.e. only 700 MW of solar and 72 MW of wind were installed. By comparison, 50,000 MW of wind and 128,000 MW of photovoltaic units have been installed in Europe in the last four years.
According to Stancu, ten years ago, when Romania chose the green certificate scheme to stimulate investment in renewable energy, the rest of Europe had feed-in tariffs. However, in the first four years of the law’s application, Romania had an exceptional development of the renewable energy sector, reaching in 2013 the top 10 in the speed of development of production capacities.
“Romania is considered the sixth country in Europe in terms of solar and wind energy production potential, after Spain, Portugal and Greece, but we are a bit behind. We should have 10 GW of wind, 10 GW of industrial-scale PV and 5 GW of rooftop PV,” Stancu added.
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To close this gap, Romania would have to meet five key criteria, including a minimum production cost for energy and competitive prices for the technologies needed, where the cost of photovoltaic technology has fallen by 80% and wind by 20% in the last ten years. The third criterion concerns the realization time of projects, which can now be developed in 2-3 years, a control of the cost of raw materials and competition in the market.
Energy Strategy Summit 2024 was organized by Energynomics, with support from our partners: ABB, ADC, Alive Capital, BayWa r.e, BCR, Best Tools Company, CRC Energy, Distribuție Energie Electrica Romania, DRI, Eaton Electric, Electrica Furnizare, Elektra Renewable Support, EnergoBit, Energo Power, Enevo Group, Evryo, Exim Banca Românească, Hidroelectrica, Horvath, Huawei, Jinko Solar, Keno Energy, MET România Energy, Nofar Energy, Nuclearelectrica, OX2, Photomate, PNE, Polytrade, Renomia Gallagher, Romgaz, Schneider Electric, SolaX Power, TDP Partners, ThinkBlu Solution, Transelectrica, Vertis, WALDEVAR Energy. With the support of Alexandrion Group, Mobexpert.
Strategic partners: ACUE, AFEER, AIIR, AHK România, ARPEE, CNR-CME, CRE, EFdeN, EPG, HENRO, FPPG, PATRES, ROMATOM, RPIA, RWEA, SAMER.