The equipment supply market for renewable energy production facilities is “on the boil”, but the challenge of operating these projects appears after they are put into operation and consists in selling the energy produced, said Mircea Bica, CEO of EnergoPower, during the conference “New wave of renewables”, organized by Energynomics.
“It is a wave or rather the beginning of a wave. The market is boiling, everyone is looking for funding, looking for boards. There are many legislative uncertainties, uncertainties related to the deadlines for signing financing contracts, and supply chains, which are starting to show signs of delays. The biggest challenge I see comes after implementation. What will be their mode of operation, after they are put into operation? Will the beneficiaries who know less about this field find enough specialized resources so that they can optimally exploit them?”, added Bica.
As more and more photovoltaic panels are installed, energy will become cheaper, and it will not “be a luxury anymore”, but the question arises as to who will consume it and on which markets it can be sold.
According to Bica, there are two types of developing a commissioned project. The first is represented by its technical operation and consists in maintaining the respective capacity at the designed parameters for as long as possible. The second way of operating solar panels is a commercial operation, which is the most important considering the volatility of prices in the energy market.
“Those who come with new capacities to the market make a business plan for 2-3 years in the beginning, but with almost zero visibility for a period longer than ten years, when we cannot know what the price of electricity will be. The business plan cannot stand until there is a strategy to commercially operate that production capacity. Who will be in charge of selling that energy and to whom will he sell it?”, said Bica.
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From his point of view, the beneficiaries of larger capacities to generate electricity from photovoltaic sources can license themselves as energy suppliers and concern themselves with selling it on the spot or wholesale market, but they will need the knowledge to do that, especially if they want to make profits.
The conference “New wave of renewables“ was organized by Energynomics with the support of our partners: ABB, BCR, Eaton Electric, EnergoBit, EnergoPower, Enevo Group, Phoenix Contact, Photomate, REI Group, Simtel, Volt, Wiren.