The main factor for the trend was the halt for Green Home scheme, which subsidized by up to 6,000 lei (about EUR1,300) installation of a home solar panel system for water heating and was the market’s growth driver in 2010-2011.
The market went down in 2012 even though manufacturers and companies that sell such equipment say that only 35,000 homes have solar panels in Romania at the moment, which means only one in four homes chose this solution to get hot water. The price of a solar water heater starts at EUR1,300 and may go to as much as EUR5,000.
“Our initial estimate, which added the budgets available through Green Home 2010-2011 and the 20,000 homes already equipped before this scheme for a potential 50,000 homes with solar water heaters, assumed an optimal progress of the scheme,” says Catalin Draguleanu, sales manager of Ariston Thermo Romania, a manufacturer of solar panels and one of the largest companies in its line of business.
“We can see a decline of the solar panel systems market in 2012 compared with the previous year because the Green Home scheme was halted and because the reimbursements for the previously approved projects and installed or bought this year took a long time to complete or did not happen at all. From our calculations, about 35,000 homes throughout the country have solar water heaters installed,” said Ariston Thermo’s official.
According to the latest data available, there are about 8.5 million homes in Romania, which means that only four our one thousand have such a system in place to get hot water.
“Compared with last year, sales of solar water heaters witnessed a slight decline in the first six months oft year. Sales were down because of the Green Home scheme was halted, which granted subsidies of up to EUR1,500,” said Sebastian Popescu, category manager plumbing fixtures and heating with bauMax Romania.
Ariston’s official says that beyond the Green Home, another factor influencing sales of such systems is how new individual construction projects go, a sector that has not seen growth lately.
Sales varied according to the type of solar panels, Ariston Thermo’s Catalin Draguleanu said.
“We can see an about 20% decline in Ariston’s sales of natural circulation systems, and a significant growth of 40% of the forced circulation systems,” the Ariston official added.
Natural circulation systems are the cheapest because the boiler is located on the roof. They were the best sellers of the Green Home scheme, because the price fit into the RON6,000 subsidy.
Forced circulation systems require only the solar panels to be installed on the roof and have become the systems of choice for people with higher than average incomes, which generated growth for the market.
Total investment in a solar water heater (installation not included) starts at RON4,000 and may reach as much as RON11,000 or RON17,000, according to Catalin Draguleanu.
The investment in such a system takes two to seven year to recoup, depending on the yield, geographic location and number of people using it, says Mugurel-Horia Rusu, general manager of Hornbach Romania, which started selling such systems this September.
The data provided by the companies in this industry show that despite the Green Home scheme, Romania was at the bottom of the ranking of countries by surface area of solar panels installed per thousand inhabitants.
“Romania had 5 square meters of solar panels installed per 1,000 people at the end of last year, Bulgaria had 2.6 times more, while Hungary had 2.7 times more,” Ariston Thermo Romania representative said. (EUR1=RON4.514)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)