The Modernisation Fund provides companies with a total budget of €815 million for investments in renewable energy, both in a scheme dedicated to consumption efficiency through the installation of photovoltaic panels (with an allocation of €415 million) and in the production of green energy from various sources (with an allocation of €400 million).

"Factories, retailers and other consumers cannot miss this opportunity as the deadline for ending the energy price cap approaches. We are in talks for large and very large projects in green energy production and we are convinced that the money from the sale of CO2 certificates can put Romania on the map of Europe's major renewable energy producers", Roxana Mircea, managing partner of REI Grup said.

The Ministry of Energy has published during January the advisory guidelines for both calls (self-consumption and green energy production), with most of the funds going to solar panel investments.

Supporting investment in new renewable electricity generation capacity for own consumption 

Companies applying for non-reimbursable funding for their own consumption will have a total of €415 million at their disposal, of which more than 85% is earmarked for investments in increasing energy efficiency with solar panels, followed by wind energy (€30 million) and last but not least hydro (€25 million).

"In this case, we are talking about a cost standard of €1 million for projects below 1 MW and €500,000 for those with installed capacity above 1 MW. We recommend companies, in cases where they are slightly above 1 MW installed capacity, to apply for 0.99 MW in order to benefit from a higher grant. We estimate that for projects up to 1 MW a grant of around €350-375,000 and for projects above 1 MW only €250-300,000/MW. In addition, companies must submit 12 consecutive invoices and strictly on the basis of these invoices the installed capacity of the new PV plant is calculated", Roxana Mircea said.

Supporting investments in new renewable electricity generation capacity 

The total estimated budget amounts to €400 million, of which €200 million for solar, wind (€100 million) and hydro (€100 million). Developers of photovoltaic projects that are feeding energy into the grid will benefit from a maximum cost standard of €500,000.

"Companies applying for a grant of €100-150,000/MW could win or the grant could even be reduced to €60-70,000 if 10 large projects of 250-300 MW win and take up the entire €200 million budget allocated to solar energy", Roxana Mircea added , who stressed that in this case, too, the principle of "who asks for the least €/MW" will prevail.

Eligible applicants for both calls can be c, micro-enterprises, SMEs, as well as large enterprises, and an investment project will benefit from a maximum of €20 million/investment.

The Modernisation Fund programme started last November with the session dedicated to the agriculture sector, where farmers were able to access €150 million of the more than €500 million made available by MADR. Towards the end of the year, the session dedicated to public authorities was also launched, where the exercise was a competitive one, on a "first come - first served" basis.