The Moldovan authorities must strictly control the investments made in the production of eolian and solar energy and make effort to interconnect the country’s electric power system with Romania’s, energy security expert Vadim Ceban said in a news conference at IPN.
Vadim Ceban is the author of the study “Development of renewable energy in Moldova: realities, capacities, options, prospects”, made for the Foreign Policy Association (APE). According to him, to facilitate the use of renewable energy, stimuli should be used such as capped tariffs, subsidies for investments and tax concessions. There are many intentions to invest in the production of eolian and solar energy in Moldova, but our system cannot satisfy the demand owing to its poor technical capacities.
Vadim Ceban said there is a tendency in the EU to transfer the renewable energy sector to the open market. “More precisely, the European Commission wants all the renewable sources of energy to be used on a competition basis after 2020. There will be offered no stimuli or concessions. It is evident that the maturity level of the renewable energy sector of the EU and of Moldova’s sector is different. We cannot open this sector. We need about 7-10 years to prove that these investments are efficient,” stated the expert.
The investments in the renewable energy sector, especially for generating eolian energy, are rather costly. Vadim Ceban said that a selection is necessary so as to prevent the penetration of the energy system without control.
The expert’s main recommendation is for the authorities to learn from the mistakes of other states that face negative effects owing to inefficient investments. “Some of the countries offered very large subsidies that could not be continued owing to the economic crisis and were thus inefficient,” said Vadim Ceban.
The study was carried out by the APE with the support of East Europe Foundation, with the financial resources provided by the Government of Sweden through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark/DANIDA
