Wind power producers collected about EUR6.8 million in green certificates in October alone, and about EUR49.2 million from the support scheme made available by the Romanian government this year.
Monthly statistics put together by national grid company Transelectrica about energy generated from renewable sources show the amount of wind power generated in the first ten months of 2011 was over 6.5 times higher compared with the same interval a year ago, partly because of the increase in installed capacity.
On the other hand, the amounts of money wind power producers get depend on the quality of the wind.
For instance, whereas they collected EUR6.8 million from green certificates in October, they received only EUR3.1 million in July because of the milder winds that month.
The company, which got most of the money from the support scheme offered by the Romanian government, was Czech-held CEZ. The power producer has a wind farm in Dobrogea (SE Romania) and collected about EUR28.2 million from January through October 2011.
CEZ’s farm should have had 600 MW already installed, but only half of this capacity is in place, and the rest will be added in 2012.
Next in the ranking is Energias de Portugal, which already has three wind farms in Dobrogea towns of Pestera and Cernavoda, with a total capacity of 228 MW. The company got over EUR10 million from green certificates alone in the first ten months of this year.
In all, Transelectrica’s data reveal that wind farms delivered 0.9TWh to the national grid, which is enough power to fuel about 450,000 households for ten months, if each of them uses 200 kWh of power.
Whereas wind energy producers had a peak month in October in terms of both the money they got and the amount of power generated, the small hydropower plants suffered as a result of the drought. October was the month when their output was at its lowest, so that they collected merely EUR0.4 million in green certificates.
This is half the amount in July and over three times less than in January, which reflects the lack of rainfall that also affected the output of the big hydropower plants.
All in all, 1.19 million green certificates were issued for all renewable energy producers, which include wind farms, small hydropower plants, biomass power plants and solar farms, in the first ten months of the year. These certificates were worth EUR65.8 million, of which EUR49.2 million went to wind power producers, EUR8.2 million to small hydropower plant owners, about EUR64,000 to owners of solar farms and EUR8.3 million to the companies generating power from biomass.
Although wind power producers made quite a lot of money from green certificates, they stand to make substantially more, maybe even as of this month (November).
Green certificates are the main type of support the Romanian government chose to provide for renewable energy investments.
Each power producer gets one certificate per each megawatt/hour generated. The price of such a certificate ranges from EUR27 to EUR55. The certificate is then sold to electricity suppliers, such as Electrica, which are required to include green energy in the power basket supplied to customers and serves as proof of compliance.
Since it comes at a cost for suppliers, it will be passed on to consumers, both households and companies, which will pay more for electricity.
Beyond these green certificates, companies may go to the free market and sell the power generated.
Things will radically change soon, because the government approved an emergency ordinance that improves support for green power generation.
The ordinance changes the system from the ground up, so that instead of the current reward of one certificate regardless of the type of power generated, the number of certificates will vary with the type of power.
Wind energy investors will therefore get two green certificates by 2017, while solar power producers will get six.
The support scheme will amount to EUR10 billion by 2020, according to Romanian energy regulator ANRE. This is one of the most generous support schemes in Europe, the Economy Ministry says.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)