The energy market watchdog ANRE at the beginning of 2014 said that if all the projects whose permits expired in 2014 were completed, about 750 MW should be installed in photovoltaic parks and 1,200 MW in wind farms.
ANRE reports say that installing one megawatt of capacity in a wind farm costs some EUR1.46 million, while in a solar farm it costs about EUR1.3 million. Therefore last year should have seen about EUR2.7 billion investments in wind farms and solar parks.
The reality, however, is far from the early 2014 estimates, as legislative changes impacting the support for renewable energy investments made investors much less willing to spend money in this industry.
The data published by Romania’s national grid company Transelectrica (TEL.RO) show that 3,220.7 MW installed in wind farms were in operation in January-November and received green certificates under the clean energy support scheme. This means capacity increased by some 438 MW compared with the estimated 1,200 MW.
Therefore, instead of 480 turbines only 175 were installed last year, while in 2013 the number stood at 384, taking into account an average capacity of 2.5 MW per turbine. Investments in wind farms can thus be put at EUR640 million, compared with the EUR1.7 billion estimated early in 2014.
Solar park projects did not progress as expected, either. Early in 2014, ANRE estimated 750 MW might be installed in solar parks, which would have required EUR975 million investments. Transelectrica reports, however, show that only about 270 MW had been installed by the end of November 2014, almost three times fewer than expected. In all, photovoltaic parks with a capacity of 1,291.7 MW were registered for green certificates by the end of November 2014.
It is hard to believe that full 2014 figures will be much different from the January-November statistics, considering deployment of renewable energy projects is mostly done between spring and autumn.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)