RRF

A latecomer to the European PV party, Romania’s embrace of clean energy means it is perfectly placed to ride the wave of urgently ramped grid investment being rolled out by the European Union.

The 22 nations which have had their “recovery and resilience” spending plans approved by the European Commission are set to devote billions to clean energy facilities, with the cash set to be disbursed in three payments to the end of next year.

The latest, seven-year investment attracted offers worth more than €100 billion from investors and means the European Union has already generated €54 billion of the €80 billion of bond proceeds it is aiming for this year, as part of its five-year, €800 billion NextGenerationEU support package.

An independent third-party has approved the European Commission’s safeguards to ensure the projects in member states financed by €250 billion of green bonds over the next five years, will have genuine emission reduction credentials.

The investment has been planned as part of the nation’s recovery and resilience plan to access EU funds for its post-Covid economic stimulus package. The spending plans of Portugal and Greece have also been approved by the European Commission in the last 48 hours.

The trade body has highlighted a lack of explicit PV industry support in EU member states which already host domestic manufacturers, such as Germany, France, Austria, Belgium and Lithuania, and says the focus on green hydrogen could exacerbate the solar trade deficit with Asia.

The European Investment Bank and Greece this week signed a first-of-its-kind agreement to jointly manage €5 billion of investment concerned with the EU member state’s post-Covid recovery plan. The strategy has a key focus on green energy.

The national PV body in the country wants €1 billion from the EU’s recovery and resilience fund to be allocated to upgrading the electricity network to host more solar power generation capacity.

The European Parliament and Council of Ministers continued to tidy up the details of the bloc’s Covid-recovery package today by publishing the rules of how the money will be disbursed.

The EU today confirmed natural gas-fired power and heat generation facilities can qualify for Covid-recovery spending as long as they fulfil a maximum emission target or are accompanied by credible member-state plans to ramp up renewables usage.