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Romania reached Europe 2020 renewable energy goals in 2014, says Eurostat
Romania is among the one third EU members that have already reached the 20 percent level required to meet their national Europe 2020 targets for renewable energy out of gross energy consumption, according to information published by Eurostat, the statistics office of the EU. The 24.9 percent Romania registered in 2014 also puts the country almost ten percentage points over the EU average of 16 percent, business-review.eu reports.
Joining Romania are Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Croatia, Italy, Lithuania, Finland and Sweden who have also met their national 2020 targets, with Denmark and Austria being less than 1 percent away from the 2020 targets. Lagging behind are France (8.7 percent away from the 2020 objectives), the Netherlands (8.5 percent), the United Kingdom (8.0 percent), and Ireland (7.4 percent).
The share of energy from renewable sources in gross final consumption of energy at the EU level has increased in 24 out of the 28 member states compared with a year ago, says Eurostat. In total, the level has almost doubled from 2004 (8.5 percent), the first year for which the data was made available and remains one of the headline indicators of the Europe 2020 strategy, with the goal for the union being of 20 percent energy coming from renewable sources in gross final consumption of energy by then.
Renewables will continue to play a key role in the EU meeting its energy needs beyond 2020, according to Eurostat, with member states having already agreed on a new EU renewable energy target of 27 percent by 2030.
Romania has registered in recent years an investment boom in the renewable sector, on the back of a generous incentives scheme. However, the government moved to cut the support for producers in the past two years and partially exempted the industrial consumers from paying for the green certificates. The big consumers complained that the price of electricity surged due to the incentives system for green energy producers.
Already, renewable producers are struggling to find buyers for the green certificates, which generate a significant share of revenues along with the sale of electricity.
At the end of 2015, Romania had 3.129MW worth of wind installed capacities that receive incentives, while another 1.325MW was in solar, according to grid operator Transelectrica. Hydro and biomass projects had 585MW and 104MW, respectively.