Waiting for the new law on renewables, 30% of green energy producers re at risk to become insolvent due to the fall in green certificate (GC) support scheme, says Viorel Lefter, president of the association of green energy producers PATRES.
The new bill underwent several changes as a result of studies conducted by a foreign consulting firm and could raise green certificates absorption rate to 90%, up from 50-60% today. The law might be published this week to the website of the ministry of Energy, to enter the public debate procedures.
“Four producers have already entered insolvency. And there are producers with parks sealed, locked, with no funds to maintain them. And given the proposal of (the regulatory body) ANRE for the quota of green certificates for 2017, we estimate the threat of insolvency involving approximately 30% of producers,” says Lefter.
“We reached a cumulative loss of about 4 billion lei in the last two years … to huge investment in wind,” added Claudia Brânduş, president of the association of investors in wind energy RWEA.
She argues that devaluation of wind assets is of 2.3 billion lei, and the investment return period is of 48 years.
Manufacturers require, in addition to reviewing the Law 220/2008 for the elimination of duration of GCs, th GC share growth, taxation of GCs to the moment of sale and also reintroducing the bilateral contracts.
“Permission to enter into bilateral agreements for producers of up to 3MW was a breath of fresh air for the industry … it was a matter of survival,” said Lefter.
In Romania there are 732 renewable energy producers who receive green certificates, cumulating investment of over 8 billion euro. Of these, 63% are wind farms, 28% solar parks, 7.7% small hydro and – 2% biomass. According to PATRES, there are currently 8.4 million unsold green certificates in the market and over 335 000 certificates have expired.
