Many companies have started to take into account the refurbishment of some of the wind farms installed 10-14 years ago, as they are starting to approach the end of their life, said Liviu Gavrilă, vice president of RWEA, at the 9th edition of the Energy Strategy Summit, an event organized by Energynomics.
“We are talking about retrofitting in many of the projects that were done 10-14 years ago. The new paradigm seems to consist of nuclear, and natural gas for another 8-10 years, depending on the EU Taxonomy, as well as an aggregation of renewables, so that it is no longer a unique source, alongside new technologies. In 2030, maybe we would have not achieved everything, but there will be something”, said Gavrilă.
He expressed his hope that in this new wave of investments in renewables “we will do the right thing”, and for this, we need hybrid projects that join wind energy and solar sources and energy storage solutions powered by hydrogen as well. However, market players are in an extremely unpredictable environment where re-regulation and investment decisions are “extremely difficult” because “no one seems to know exactly where we are or where we are going”.
In addition, frequent price changes and secondary regulations have the effect of shifting paradigms from one month to the next, leaving investors unable to control elements of risk.
The beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, a year and a half ago, only “accelerated some trends”. The rapid market penetration of low-emission technologies had already begun before this border crisis through various EU directives mandating an increase in the share of green energy in each member state.
According to Gavrilă, companies opting now to reduce carbon emissions will benefit in the medium and long term, but the additional 2.5 GW increase in renewable energy production capacity by 2030 will depend on access to the grid and of the investments in its strengthening.
Energy Strategy Summit 2023 was organised by Energynomics with the support of ABB, ASTRASUN Solar, BCR, CEZ Romania, Eaton Electric, Electrica Furnizare, Electro Service RB, Elektra Renewable Support, EnergoBit, Enevo Group, E.ON, Finder, Huawei, MET România Energy, OMV Petrom, OX2 România, Phoenix Contact, Photomate, ProCredit Bank, REI Grup, Renomia Gallagher, Romgaz, Schneider Electric, Signify, Transelectrica, Taw Energy, Volt, WIKA, Wiren, Alexandrion Group, Aqua Carpatica, Klarmedia and Mobexpert.