Photon Energy Breaks Ground on Second of Total 32 MWp Solar Projects to Be Built in Romania This Year
/BUCHAREST, July 13, 2022, 9:30 GMT, PHOTON ENERGY/ Photon Energy N.V. announces that it has broken ground on the construction of its second Romanian PV power plant, which will have a generation capacity of 4.7 MWp. High-efficiency bifacial solar modules mounted on single-axis trackers will deliver around 6.8 GWh of renewable energy annually to the grid of Distribuție Energie Electrică Romania, which will be sold on the energy market on a merchant basis, without any support or a power purchase agreement with an energy offtaker. The new power plant is scheduled to commence operations in the fourth quarter of 2022. Located near Aiud in Romania’s Alba County, the power plant will extend over 6.6 hectares of greenfield land and will be equipped with some 8,700 solar panels.
Upon the commissioning of this plant, the Company will own and operate 90 solar power plants with a combined generation capacity of 102.3 MWp in its IPP portfolio. A combined 90 MWp will be selling subsidy-free clean electricity directly on the energy market. Currently, the Company is developing PV projects in Romania with a total capacity of 236 MWp, with 115 MWp at an advanced stage of development. The power plant will be owned and operated by Holloway Solar S.R.L., a special-purpose company fully owned by Photon Energy Group.
The Company is currently developing utility-scale PV projects with a combined capacity of over 790 MWp in its key CEE markets and Australia, including 236 MWp in Romania. The remaining project development pipeline in Romania is expected to be built and commissioned in 2023 and 2024 and thus the Romanian market will significantly contribute to the Company’s goal of expanding its IPP portfolio to at least 600 MWp globally by the end of 2024.
Based on energy price forecasts for the remainder of 2022, the Company reconfirms its financial guidance for consolidated revenues in 2022 to increase to EUR 65.0 million from EUR 36.4 million in 2021, representing a 78.8% increase YoY, leading to an increase of EBITDA to EUR 18.0 million from EUR 9.6 million in 2021 (+87.8% YoY).
History of Solar Market Development in Romania
By the end of 2011, the country had approximately 3MW installed capacity, by the end of 2012, this capacity increased fourteenfold to approximately 42MW, and with a more than thirty-fold explosive growth, cumulative installed capacity reached 1,293MW (1.29GW) by the end of 2014. However, solar photovoltaic market growth in Romania between 2015 and 2020 was moderate, with only 97MW newly installed capacity in this period. The Renewable Market Watch™ registered that after a 7-year stagnation in the solar power market in Romania since 2021, the activity in the solar energy sector increased, and the number of photovoltaic projects under development and construction is promptly increasing.
Romania Solar Resource Potential
Romania has very good solar resource potential as the geographical location is favourable for utilising solar energy. Romania is located in an area with a solar potential of 210 sunny days per year and with an annual solar energy flux between 1,000 kWh/m²/year and 1,300 kWh/m²/year. From this total amount, around 600 to 800 kWh/m²/year is technically feasible.
Chart 1: Solar Resource Map of Romania; Sources: Wolrd Bank Group, ESMAP, SolarGis
According to the study of the Faculty of Energy Engineering at the University of Oradea in the South of Romania, the yearly solar radiation is 1450 ÷ 1750 kWh / m², being the best value for solar installations. The values greater than 1450 kWh/m² are in Oltenia, Muntenia, and the South of Moldova. The most important solar regions of Romania are the Black Sea coast, Dobrogea, and Oltenia with an average of 1,600 kWh/m²/year.
Future Market Trend
The Romanian solar energy market is expected to be heading toward the expansion phase by 2031. Factors propelling the market growth include concerns regarding the environmental impacts of fossil fuels, such as degradation, greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), severe climate change conditions, and others. Also, rapid urbanization and economic growth in the largest Romanian cities are significant factors driving the solar energy market. The power market (including the solar photovoltaic sector) in Romania has been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis and the military conflict in Ukraine, but we remain optimistic about the future solar energy development in the country by 2031.
The more information about the solar power market in Romania, including full contact details of solar project owners and developers, you may read here: Romania Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Power Market Outlook 2022÷2031
In order to download the executive summary brochure with sample pages, please access from here: Romania Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Power Market Outlook by 2031 - Sample
For a better understanding of the benefits of using our reports, you may read here: Benefit List - Reports of Renewable Market Watch - 2022
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