The Ministry of Energy submitted for public consultation the State aid scheme on supporting investments in developing energy storage capacities (batteries) with financing from the Modernization Fund.
The state aid aims to support investments in developing new energy storage facilities (batteries) connected to an existing renewable energy production facility, with an estimated budget of EUR 150 million.
The funding can be accessed via a competitive tender process by submitting a funding application that will contain, among other things: (i) the description of the project, including its start and completion date; (ii) project objectives, indicators, and expected results; (iii) the budget and expenditure of the project; (iv) the amount of state aid requested for the project, including the amount of state aid in EUR/MWh.
To be eligible, the project must meet the following conditions:
►aim to build a new energy storage facility connected to an existing renewable energy production facility; ►the storage facility absorbs at least 75% of its energy annually from the renewable energy production facility to which it is directly connected; ►the amount of state aid granted under the scheme per MWh of installed storage capacity is a maximum of EUR 100,000, without exceeding EUR 10 million per company, per project; ►the project did not benefit from public funding; ►the implementation of the project does not exceed 31.12.2029.
The following categories of projects are excluded from funding:
►projects involving batteries using lead, NiCd or NiMH technologies; ►projects proposing the replacement of old storage capacities; ►projects aimed at storing energy exclusively extracted from the NES; ►projects that have benefited from financing for energy storage systems from other non-reimbursable financing programs; ►projects submitted in partnership.
According to the evaluation grid, the financing application that will have the lowest amount of state aid requested per MWh of installed storage capacity will obtain a maximum score (100 points) and zero points will go to the application that will have the highest amount of state aid requested, with a linear decrease in the score for the intermediate values of the requested state aid.
Under this state aid scheme, the following are considered eligible expenditures:
►Expenditure for land improvement works related to the project; ►Expenditure for ensuring the utilities necessary for the project; ►Expenditure with the payment of site managers; ►Expenditure for construction and installations; ►Expenditure for the assembly of machinery, technological and functional equipment; ►Expenditure with machinery, technological and functional equipment that require assembly; ►Equipment expenditure; ►Expenditure with intangible assets; ►Expenditure for construction works and installations related to the organization of the site; ►Expenditure related to the organization of the site.
As far as beneficiaries are concerned, existing or newly established companies, micro, small, medium, or large, registered in Romania or another Member State and registered with the Romanian Trade Registry until the date of the first payment of the state aid and which, among other conditions, do not carry out their activity in the fisheries or aquaculture sector, can apply.
More information is available on the Ministry of Energy website at the address here.
We will revert with additional information on this topic as soon as the competent authorities approve the legal framework.
