“We notice a certain asymmetry between investments in the renewable energy sector and investments in other types of energy. Most of the investment goes to wind and solar energy, which indicates support schemes are rather imbalanced,” said Alexandru Sandulescu, head of the ministry’s energy division.
Speaking at the 2013 ZF Power Summit in Bucharest, Alexandru said the government’s support scheme for producers of renewable energy could be “too generous.”
Local producers of renewable energy benefit from government support via a green certificates scheme, which allows them to recover part of the production costs. Each renewable energy producer is granted a number of green certificates for power fed into the electricity grid.
The subsidies, which are eventually passed into consumers’ electricity bills, are not available for producers of conventional energy.
The country’s energy watchdog ANRE said recently that the government plans to reduce the number of green certificates granted to solar energy producers starting with 2014.
According to Sandulescu, the government might launch for debate a new energy strategy this year, which includes projections for the 2035-2050 period.