Winners of clean energy: Who gained the most from green certificates

17 mai 2011 Autor: Roxana Petrescu

The flood of investors in the field of renewable energy and particularly in the wind energy sector has a single explanation: the green certificates or the mechanism of subsidies aimed at these projects, which would otherwise be unprofitable. Last year, CEZ, Elsid and Hidroelectrica benefitted the most from this system.

According to the data provided by Transelectrica, the national electricity transmission company, 676,606 green certificates were issued last year, totally worth around EUR37 million, with 48 companies receiving such a boost for investments in green energy generation facilities.

The company that received the highest number of green certificates is Tomis Team, controlled by CEZ of the Czech Republic. According to Transelectrica data, CEZ started getting green certificates in August and by late 2010 received 240,321 such instruments, the equivalent of EUR13.2 million.

The second company that received green certificates last year is Elsid, which got around EUR6 million in its accounts on the basis of registered hydropower production.

The third beneficiary of green certificates is Hidroelectrica, Romania's biggest energy producer. Hidroelectrica last year collected only EUR4.2 million from green certificates.