The Romanian National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) has suggested the number of green certificates awarded to investments in PV and biomass should be cut.
Speaking at the 18th Energy Focus Conference in Bucharest, ANRE President, Nicolas Havrilet said that the need for green certificates to support PV technology was no longer needed as the technology itself has become cheaper, with installation costs reducing by as much as 50%.
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He gave no further details on the level of cuts ANRE envisages.
Also addressing the conference, Rodin Traicu, Romania's Economy Secretary, said the country should instead focus on coal. The audience was comprised of ANRE President, Nicolas Havrileţ, Director General for the Ministry of Economy Alexander Săndulescu, directors of public and private companies, analysts and experts.
Launched last year, Romania's green certificiates are granted to electricity producers for each megawatt hour generated from wind, hydro, biomass, landfill gas, sewage plant treatment gas or solar. If the energy is produced in high efficiency co-generation plants, a bonus is applied.
The certificates issued by the state to the producers can be sold to the energy suppliers on a specific market (independent of the electricity market). The electricity suppliers have an obligation to acquire annually a certain number of green certificates. If they fail to do so they must pay a penalty. The penalties are collected by the transmission system operator and transferred to the Romanian Environmental Fund, which will use them for support to small individual producers of electricity from renewable sources.
