Renewable Energy Summit

Events
Written By Atila Nyerges

Click to post on LinkedIn

Our colleague, Mihaela Nyerges, joined the 1st session panel at Renewable Energy Summit 2023 discussing on the key barriers faced by investors in the renewable energy sector, possible solutions and ongoing legislative initiatives.

Here are a few of the topics addressed:

  • failure of Ministry of Agriculture to harmonize its procedures with the primary legislation blocks the development of agrivoltaic projects on pastures, while many municipalities organize public tenders for awarding concessions of pastures in view of developing such projects;

  • the development of E-RES projects on lands with fertility class I and II is blocked, although the Competition Council included in a recent study a recommendation to the Ministry of Agriculture to allow the development of wind projects on such lands;

  • the authorities are working on a new guarantee mechanism that would prevent additional artificial blockage of the grid by speculative projects; the principles of such mechanism (such as amount, applicability, recovery cases) will be very important in assessing its impact;

  • the obligation to obtain the building permit within 18 months from the ATR, although designed to prevent and sanction the inactivity of investors, is not an efficient instrument, as it often represents a challenge for committed and financially capable investors due to reasons outside their control (such as need to relocate the project due to negative endorsements or local opposition, huge delays in obtaining AACR endorsement); in addition, it severely affects the permitting phasing of the projects for which the ATR provides delayed commissioning deadlines;

  • there is no procedure regulated for improving the connection terms of existing ATRs once old ATRs expire;

  • investments in storage capacities are both needed for the grid and interesting for investors, but to make such investments feasible, legislative interventions are needed (including as regards the applicable tariffs and urbanism permitting requirements as existing PUZ exemptions do not apply to standalone storage capacities); hopefully, the legislative initiative currently under public debate will successfully address all these points.

Congratulations to GOVNET Romania for organizing yet another successful event.

#renewables #energylawyers

Atila Nyerges
Next

Excelence Award