According to data from Transelectrica, the national electricity transmission company, around 750,000 green certificates worth EUR41.2 million were issued in the first half of the year, 11% more than in the whole of 2010, when over 676,000 such instruments for green, solar, hydro and biomass energy were issued.
The amounts are four times higher than in the first six months of 2010, both in the case of green certificates issued and in terms of money collected from green producers. Green certificates are the way in which the Romanian state supports renewable energies. Without them, the wind power projects would not be profitable. Each such certificate is issued for every MWh of energy produced and is currently worth a maximum of EUR55, while its minimum value is EUR27. Producers of green energy that get these certificates sell them on to energy suppliers, which are required to have a given percentage of green energy in the electricity they sell to end customers.
The big winners of this support scheme in the first six months of the year were Czech-owned CEZ, which has a wind farm in Fantanele (SE Romania). The company gained EUR19 million from these green papers alone and were followed by Energias de Portugal with nearly EUR6 million for two wind farms in two other communes in the region.
Transelectrica data also show twice as much wind energy was produced in the first six months of the year than in the whole of last year, and nearly 50 times more than in the similar period of last year, considering that the large farms joined the grid in the second half of 2010.
In all, wind turbines added more than 559,000 MWh to the grid in the first six months, covering the electricity needs of over 460,000 households over a six-month period.
Wind power producers received the most money from the support scheme for the first six months of the year, EUR31 million, out of the over EUR41 million received by all producers of renewable energy who hold green certificates.
Romania on Wednesday received the European Commission’s approval for the support scheme ruled by Law 220/2008 whereby the number of green certificates allocated will vary based on the technology used. This means that instead of one green certificate awarded irrespective of the technology, producers of wind energy will receive two, while solar energy producers will receive six, for instance.