According to data from the annual 2011 report of energy group CEZ, which include estimates for 2012, the group expects the wind turbines set up in Fantanele and Cogealac to produce 0.8 TWh and 0.3 TWh respectively. This means around 2% of national electricity consumption and is an 80% increase on deliveries made by CEZ into the system last year.
The increase comes at a time when works for the wind power project in Dobrogea are under way and the full 600-MW capacity, which entails the setting up of 240 General Electric turbines, is set to be attained at the end of this year. In all the budget allocated by CEZ for this project is EUR1.1 billion and the completion of the wind farm in the two Dobrogea small towns will be the largest investment of its kind in Europe.
Romania, the positive factor
“Positive factors driving predictions of year-on-year growth include an anticipated increase in electricity generation in nuclear and coal-fired power plants, as well as higher generation volume and profitability in CEZ Group wind farms in Romania, where newly obtained higher guaranteed support in the form of the second green certificate will be one of the factors helping us achieve higher sales revenues,” reads the 2011 report of the CEZ group.
The green certificates are the means whereby the Romanian government rewards renewable energy producers, so that by 2020 they can meet their mandatory targets in terms of the share of green energy to overall electricity consumption.
These certificates are awarded per each MWh of green energy delivered into the system and are worth between EUR27 and EUR55, under the law. At present, due to the low supply, these instruments are traded at their maximum value, and market experts say this will last until 2014. Whereas up until late last year each energy producer received one single certificate, irrespective of the technology used, since November they are rewarded based on the type of energy delivered.
Thus, wind energy producers receive 2 green certificates and solar energy producers will get 6 certificates, for instance. Subsequently, these certificates are bought by energy suppliers, which are required to have certain quotas of green energy in the basket delivered to clients. The green certificates bought act as proof that these quotas have been met.
Green math
Therefore, since CEZ plans to generate 1.1 TWh of energy this year, it will be rewarded with green certificates worth around EUR120 million in 2012, from around EUR40 million in 2011. To the EUR120 million will add the amounts collected from selling the energy produced in Fantanele and Cogealac on the market, which could stand at EUR55 million this year, considering the price at which energy is traded on the market.
At the end of last year, CEZ announced that at group level it planned to invest significant amounts into green energy projects so that using the money obtained from the various support schemes, it could finance a major nuclear energy project in the Czech Republic – two new reactors at the Temelin power station.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)