19 companies in Romania exempted from paying for green certificates

Romania’s Economy Ministry has announced that it would exempt 19 local companies in several energy intensive industries of the payment of green certificates. The exemption will span over ten years, and will lead to savings of some EUR 750 million for the companies. However, household and other industrial consumers will have to pay for these green certificates. The exempted companies will pay 40% to 85% less than they would have normally paid on green certificates based on their energy consumption. They are active in sectors such as the manufacturing of aluminum, chemical fertilizers, waste recycling, steel, cement, paper and paperboard. The Government approved this state aid scheme in 2014, to help the large industrial companies, which also use a lot of electricity in their manufacturing process, cope with the growing cost of renewable energy. The support scheme for the renewable energy producers is based on granting a certain number of green certificates, for which the consumers pay. These can be traded on the energy market. editor@romania-insider.com