{"id":10889,"date":"2012-08-27T10:00:42","date_gmt":"2012-08-27T07:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/en\/?p=10889"},"modified":"2014-03-12T16:38:32","modified_gmt":"2014-03-12T14:38:32","slug":"wind-energy-is-not-a-game-for-everyone-its-time-investors-realized-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/2012\/08\/27\/wind-energy-is-not-a-game-for-everyone-its-time-investors-realized-this\/","title":{"rendered":"Wind Energy is not \u201ca game for everyone\u201d. It\u2019s time investors realized this."},"content":{"rendered":"

* the article was first published on the 9th of November 2011<\/em><\/p>\n

Since early in the morning I am attending REECO’s exhibition and conference about Green Energy. This first day was dedicated to Wind Energy, a segment of very high interest in Romania. Why is that? Because Romania:<\/p>\n

• Has an excellent wind potential, one of the best in Europe.<\/p>\n

• Offers a very good package of subventions for investors.<\/p>\n

• Is one of the last countries in Europe to be developed. So now that most of the other markets are blocked, Romania is becoming very attractive.<\/p>\n

This is why hundreds of people are getting involved in developing a wind energy project, hoping that they will easily earn a nice profit out of this. But, as always, reality has nothing to do with people’s hopes…<\/p>\n

2009 – 2011 (until the summer): So many arrogant people…<\/strong><\/p>\n

I got involved in the Green Energy segment of Romania in 2009. (I had done some business before as well, but it was at that time that I really got involved). I knew very few things, so I was mainly listening to people. I started having clients and no projects, so I met many project owners.<\/p>\n

The situation was exactly the same with the one I had been living throughout the golden era of Real Estate. Many people that were not serious, many arrogant people who were asking for incredible prices, completely unjustified. Sometimes even these arrogant people failed to deliver the documents they promised and they simply preferred to hide themselves in the “mist of the unknown”, where no phones or emails are replied.<\/p>\n

I also met several serious gentlemen, even concluded some transactions with them! But they were few and far in between.<\/p>\n

“Structural grants for projects. NOT to be reimbursed”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Then the period of structural grants came. We all started searching for projects that had obtained them, as they would be like “gold” for investors: “You will get the money from selling the energy, plus you will have the State paying a big part of your investment. The money you will receive will NOT have to be reimbursed” someone told me, focusing not on what we were supposed to buy, but on the fact that someone was supposed to give us money “for free”.<\/p>\n

The situation got complicated very fast, all the “big guys” entered the game, so this chapter was closed as well.<\/p>\n

Once the game rules got clear… many people realized that they were in trouble<\/strong><\/p>\n

This summer the game rules were, finally, clearly settled. The new scheme, approved by the European Union, gives investors green certificates. Now if you receive “money NOT to be reimbursed”, you don’t get green certificates and the project is not feasible anymore. At the same time financing is very difficult, many investors are waiting for the final form of the law before to proceed, so almost all the projects remain unsold.<\/p>\n

And today in the conference we realized why:<\/p>\n

Mihnea Craciun, EBRD: “The studies analyze that there are about 3.000 MW to be connected to the network and receive green certificates in the following years”<\/p>\n

The representative of EBRD in the conference today was clear:<\/p>\n

• “There are still some problems and unclear issues regarding the norms. We are still waiting for some information in order to clarify everything”.<\/p>\n

• I stood up and asked him: “There are rumors that more than 20.000 – 30.000 MW have obtained authorizations. What will happen to all these projects?”<\/p>\n

• “We expect that the first 1.500 – 1.700 MW will not have a problem to enter the system”<\/p>\n

• “Studies say that a number of 3.000 MW is expected to be constructed in the following 3 years”.<\/p>\n

• “A project with approvals does not necessarily mean that it will be constructed as well”.<\/p>\n

• “The green certificates will be given until 2016, but if the planned MW are constructed earlier, there is always the possibility for the government to modify this term”.<\/p>\n

Before the top expert of EBRD, a lady from Transelectrica was explaining to the audience the procedure to connect to the network. She mentioned that there are 8.000 MW which have received approvals to connect to the national grid. (But the moderator commented immediately that “this does not mean that all these will be constructed now. The national strategy is until 2020”).<\/p>\n

Wind energy is not for everyone. It’s time investors realized this<\/strong><\/p>\n

What are all these experts trying to tell us? More or less I understand that:<\/p>\n

• Developing a project does not mean that you will really make profits out of it.<\/p>\n

• Wind energy is not for everyone. We are talking about a lot of money and a complicated procedure.<\/p>\n

• Only the first investors will benefit from the actual scheme of green certificates. Whoever does not develop until the end of 2013 risks remaining with a project that will not benefit from green certificates.<\/p>\n

Now you tell me: There are 20.000+ MW of projects and the country can absorb 3.000, or let’s assume, 4.000. Isn’t it the time for investors to realize that this is not a game for everyone? Isn’t it the time for the project owners to go back to their papers and find out if the figures are correct?<\/p>\n

The conference today was really educating. Many experts, a lot of information.<\/p>\n

The messages are just two:<\/p>\n

·         If you don’t know what you are doing, don’t touch Wind Energy. Without expertise, you will probably find yourself losing money to consultants, taxes and “people who can help you”.<\/p>\n

·         If you are a real investor who knows what Wind Energy is all about, go on but don’t delay too much. Soon the market will be over-saturated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

* the article was first published on the 9th of November 2011 Since early in the morning I am attending REECO’s exhibition and conference about Green Energy. This first day was dedicated to Wind Energy, a segment of very high interest in Romania. Why is that? Because Romania: • Has an excellent wind potential, one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":59454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[235],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10889"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}