The Romanian Environment Fund Administration announced that it approved a total of 12,718 applications and the volume of grants allocated for the first stage of the program amount to around 52 million euros. AFM announced that it will publish a list of eligible recipients of subsidies under the “Green House” photovoltaic program.
Through the Green House program, the AFM offers grants of up to 4,000 euros for an installation of solar panels of up to 3 kW to individuals interested in producing their own electricity. The program received over 26,000 applications.
The introduction of so-called prosumers in Romania had several obstacles, mainly related to the taxation of revenues from the sale of excess electricity. According to the regulation adopted in late 2018, individuals and households who produce electricity for their own needs will finally be able to sell surplus electricity. Consumers who have electricity generation units with installed power of up to 27 kW can sell the electricity produced and delivered to the electricity grid to the electricity suppliers with which they have concluded contracts for the supply of electricity. The price that the prosumers receive is the one on the spot electricity market, but not the one at the time of delivery, but the one from the previous year. For example, the weighted average closing price of day-ahead market in 2017 was 48.75 euros/MWh, so they will receive 0.05 euros per kWh injected into the grid. Prosumers will not receive money for sold electricity directly, but it will be reduced from their electricity bills.
The prosumer is the final customer who owns electricity generation installations, including cogeneration, whose specific activity is not the production of electricity, who consumes and can store and sell electricity from renewable sources produced in its facilities, including residential blocks of flats, commercial, industrial or closed-distribution networks, provided that, in the case of non-household autonomous renewable generators, such activities do not constitute their primary commercial or professional activity.
