The amount is close to that collected by investors in the sector for the full 2012. But starting on July 1st, the support scheme based on green certificates will be cut.
More than five million green certificates were granted by the state to producers of green energy, corresponding to a production of 2.8 TWh in the first five months of the year.
During the same period, investors started operating facilities with a capacity of 515 MW, almost half the installed power capacity of the Portile de Fier I hydro-power station. Investments amounted to around EUR800 million, according to ZF calculations.
In May alone, photovoltaic farms with a capacity of 80 MW and microhydropower stations of 5 MW joined the grid, with the value of investments being almost EUR140 million, according to ZF calculations.
The calculations were based on a standard cost of EUR1.6 million per megawatt installed in solar farms and EUR2.3 million per megawatt installed in microhydropower stations.
In fact, the photovoltaic segment has been the fastest-growing one this year, after solar farms had spent a long time in the shadow of wind farms.
While at the end of 2012 only 49 MW installed in solar farms were working, Romania reached a total installed capacity of 258 MW after the first five months of the year.
The main reason for this growth is the renewable energy support scheme, which used to guarantee producers of solar energy six certificates for each megawatt delivered into the grid. Equipment is also cheaper at present.
The area most sought after by investors is southern Romania, which gets more sun.
But starting this Monday, the support scheme will change. Whereas until now every MWh of energy generated by a solar project was rewarded with six green certificates, the granting of two green certificates will be postponed. The two certificates will be granted from April 2017 until the end of 2020.
In turn, wind energy producers will now get only one green certificate instead of two up to the present. At the end of May operational wind farms had an installed capacity of 2,103 MW. This is three times the power of a reactor of Romania’s Cernavoda nuclear plant.
Also under the new support scheme, new microhydropower stations will be rewarded with two green certificates instead of three, while old and retooled ones will continue to get 0.5 and two certificates per MWh respectively.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)