Of course, any production capacity is welcome! Even renewable! … but not without conditions!

Cosmin Gabriel Pakuraru Photo: Personal archive

In various interventions on Contributors, I have shown that leaving the monopoly of Russian gas and entering the monopoly of renewable energy production with Chinese components is even more dangerous. Let me remind you that the Chinese monopoly on reserves of metals and rare earth metals is more than 80%, and the monopoly on their processing is more than 90%. More than 90% of PV panel production is in China, and more than half of wind farm components are made in China.

Romania has been exporting a lot of electricity for the last few days, and the decision-makers have started bragging that the wind blew, the sun shone (or the rain fell) for their overproduction from RES.

Here I have to caution: if this renewable energy is “subsidized” by all citizens through the bill under the “green certificate chapter”, why should we citizens pay for these certificates, even if the renewable energy is exported? Let’s not forget that these green certificates represent nothing more than the profits of companies that produce electricity from renewable sources. Why should we pay when Romanian citizens do not benefit from this energy?

If we look at imports, we can see this In May this year, we imported almost 70 GWh, which is 32% more than in May 2019.

2023 compared to 2022 – consumption decreased by 9%, and production by 4%.

2023 compared to 2019 – consumption decreased by 13%, and production by 37%.

What are the reasons for these falls?

Over the past five years, coal production has fallen by 37%. Production from hydrocarbons (gases) remained roughly at the same level, marking a month without the need for thermal energy provided by the TPP.

In nuclear, in principle, production should be the same, but in May, one reactor at a time goes for repairs for several weeks. We notice that security energy has decreased over the last year by 31%. So we ended up relying on renewable energy sources, even though the hydroelectric power would vary depending on how much it rained, how windy, and how bright the sun shone. Read the whole article and comment on Contributors.ro