Three years after its launch, the Green House photovoltaic program of the Environmental Fund Agency (AFM) managed to finance 2,575 photovoltaic panel systems, totaling a subsidy value of about 10 million euros. Another 3,712 requests are in the process of being settled (about 15 million euros).
Beyond the long delay in implementation, the program remains marked by the high rejection rate of funding applications (43.7 %) – 12,009 files out of the 27,485 submitted were rejected following the AFM analysis.
In April 2021, the Employers’ Organization of Renewable Energy Producers (PATRES) decided to expand its activity to support current and future prosumers. PATRES has 109 members, producers of energy from renewable sources with a total installed capacity of about 1,800 MW, which represents investments in the energy sector in Romania of about 2.7 billion euros.
The big gain of this program, so far, is the increased visibility of photovoltaic solutions among the general public. The second benefit is the creation of a market for photovoltaic system installers. In September 2019, 242 installer companies from all counties of the country were validated within the AFM program.
Announced in June 2018, the AFM program aims to finance with about 5,000 euros up to 20,000 individuals who wanted to set up small electricity generation facilities with a power of up to 6 kW each. In December 2018, the Financing Guide was approved, stating that photovoltaic panel systems with a minimum installed power of 3 kW will be subsidized.
The program was launched on 6 September 2019, but on 10 September, the registrations of individuals were suspended. In early November, the registrations of the potential beneficiaries were resumed, following which more than 27,000 applications for financing were registered.
In the end, more than 14,000 files were approved, but 12,000 were rejected. Only 89 % of the approved files were materialized in financing contracts, and only half of them reached the stage where there are settlement requests submitted to AFM.
