Last updated: 4 May 2017
Companies active in the electrical and thermal power generation sector and the administrative and territorial units/intra-community development associations that produce electricity from renewable sources will benefit from a new State aid scheme, approved by Government Decision no. 216/12.04.2017, published in Official Journal no. 265/14.04.2017, which entered into force on 14.04.2017.
The total budget allocated to this scheme is 100.6 million Euros and is available from 14.04.2017 until 31.12.2020.
The objective of this State aid scheme, which was developed in accordance with the Large Infrastructure Operational Program 2014-2020, is to increase the production of electricity and thermal energy from biomass, biogas and geothermal energy by 60 MW.
Beneficiaries
The beneficiaries of this State aid scheme are large enterprises, small and medium-sized enterprises, micro-enterprises, including newly established enterprises, whose accounts have not yet been approved, provided that the articles of incorporation of such beneficiaries provides, among the company’s activities, the "Production and supply of electric and thermal energy, natural gas, hot water and air-conditioning" (in accordance with chapter 35 of the CAEN Code).
The State aid scheme may also include administrative and territorial units / administrative and territorial sub-divisions / intra-community development associations. In order to benefit from the State aid scheme, beneficiaries must cumulatively fulfill certain conditions.
They also have to submit an aid application before they begin to work on their project.
The application will contain at least the following information:
- The company name and dimension ;
- The project description, including the start and end dates ;
- The place where the project will be developed; The list of costs related to the project ;
- The type of aid - subsidy, loan, guarantee, repayable down payment, capital injection or other - and the value of the public funding needed for the project
Types of projects and maximum amount of the aid
The following types of investments may be financed by this scheme :
- Creation and/or modernization of power plants that produce electrical and/or thermal energy from biomass and biogas ;
- Creation and/or modernization of power plants that produce thermal energy from geothermal water.
Other eligibility conditions are :
- The project must be implemented in Romania, in its various development regions: West, North-West, North-East, South-East, South, South-West, Center. Projects located in Bucharest – Ilfov are expressly excluded from funding from this State aid scheme.
- The project implementation period must correspond to the expenditure eligibility period, namely from the date when the project was declared eligible and until 31.12.2023 ;
- The project investor/investors has/have not received public funding in the 5 years prior to the submission of the funding application, except for preliminary studies, geo-topographic analysis, the feasibility study, the technical project, the execution details.
The maximum aid to be granted for an investment project may not exceed 15 million Euros and the maximum number of beneficiaries of such State aid is estimated at 40.
In addition, according to the Government's press release regarding this State aid scheme, the total energy produced from renewable sources is 6,550 ktep (tep = tons of oil equivalent). The unused technical potential is approximately 8,000 ktep, distributed as follows: biomass and biogas - 47%, solar energy - 19%, wind energy - 19%, hydroelectric energy -14%, geothermal energy - 2%