Liviu Gavrila, RWEA: “Renewables have been pointed at as the main cause of imbalances, but the grid is becoming unbearable”

“We still have many institutions that are involved directly or indirectly in what it means to carry out the steps of a project, and we consider that sometimes they rather hinder us. How are we compared to 2023? A little better, through the lens of the CfD calendar already announced. Finally, we have started the construction of several projects, in the order of hundreds of megawatts at the moment, compared to the 70 megawatts that we commissioned in 2023.

I think if we look at that report, we’re talking about at least eight gigawatts, although our estimate was 11, which we have to have by 2030. How are we going to do that? It will be challenging to say the least, because we will reach the level of convergence in the last two or three years and we will hit the same things: lack of human resources, lack of implementation capacity and a bunch of other things,” Liviu Gavrila, Vice-president, Romanian Wind Energy Association (RWEA) said during Green Energy Conference organized by The Diplomat-Bucharest.

“Recent history shows us that there is this leverage of assuming things. Meanwhile, some huge problems appeared on the market. A dry year like this and a year in which the wind didn’t blow much showed us how fragile the system is, and why an integrated approach is needed. The wind industry and renewables in general have been singled out as the main cause of imbalances, but they are equally the ones that are currently suffering terribly from this aspect of the grid that is becoming almost unbearable. That is, at the moment when, from the point of view of the integration of all types of wind energy production sources, in conjunction with the elements of transport and consumption, we will somehow have to change the paradigm.

If we continue like this, know that little by little, part of all these players who are in the market will not reach their destination, because it is impossible. Costs are so high right now in the market balancing area. Everyone is waiting for this middle of September, let’s see how July closes. This CfD auction is coming up and we hope that the gigawatt related to the wind industry will be allocated at a competitive price. Financing a wind project is far from easy.”