After 9 months from the end of the registration session for the Electric-Up financing program, the Ministry of Energy did not complete the evaluation of the applicants either, publishing only a preliminary list of the selected companies in the eligibility stage. Meanwhile, photovoltaic panels, which future beneficiaries of the program would buy with the money they will receive from the state, have become more expensive, amid rising energy prices. But the state also has good news.
Maybe you forgot about Electric-Up program. It is a financing scheme launched by the former PNL government, Orban, in the election campaign. The registrations actually opened on December 4, 2020, with the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Business Environment as responsible, in the Orban government, and ended on February 3, 2021, in the new Cîțu government, with the Ministry of Energy as responsible. Also with Minister Virgil Popescu (who in the meantime took over the Ministry of Economy, interim).
The state promised the beneficiary companies non-reimbursable funds of up to 100,000 euros from the state, to buy photovoltaic panels and charging stations for electric cars. The total budget of the call was 100 million euros, which means that it covers 1,000 companies with a maximum funding of 100,000 euros per project.
2,536 applicants enrolled in the program. The evaluation of the files submitted for financing in the Electric-Up Program started on April 9, 2021, two months after the end of the registration period. The Ministry of Energy says that the evaluation has started “once the access to the IT Platform dedicated to the program has been configured”.
Now the Ministry of Energy has published a preliminary list with 1,776 companies selected as eligible, but are not yet declared winners. This is just one phase of the project evaluation process submitted 9-11 months ago.
Download by HERE preliminary list of applicants declared eligible for ElectricUp 2021 – 2022. You can view the list at the end of the article without downloading it.
This preliminary list, resulting from the eligibility assessment, may be modified on the basis of a project performance coefficient (CPP) provided for in the Electric-Up procedure.
Subsequently, the Ministry of Energy will publish the “final lists”, respectively the List of eligible applicants and the List of ineligible applicants. These will be published by November 8, 2021 – promises the Ministry of Energy.
Then come other stages: “solving the appeals / revising the published lists / signing the financing contracts / implementing the financed projects within maximum 12 months from the signing / making the related payments / monitoring the implementation and post-implementation of the financed projects (12 months – 5 years) ” – as specified, the other day, by the Ministry of Energy, at the request of StartupCafe.ro.
And good news: these days, the Ministry of Energy announced that “wants to supplement the budget of the ElectricUp Program, so that all eligible projects benefit from funding, and will soon launch a new session of the ElectricUp program “. Here it must be remembered, however, that the current Cîțu Government is dismissed as the first emergency motion and ensures the interim government only.
Finally, applicants for the ElectricUp program must be constantly monitored SME Grants platform and the website of the Ministry of Energy – ElectricUp section to keep abreast of the evolution of the financing scheme.
-
From design to implementation, photovoltaic panels and charging stations for electric cars have become more expensive
The problem is that in the meantime photovoltaic panels have become more expensive and could become even more expensive until the beneficiaries get to implement the projects. As the Ministry of Energy explained to us, the companies that will be declared winners after the evaluation of the submitted projects will sign financing contracts and will then start to buy on their money the photovoltaic panels and power stations of the electric vehicles and to install.
Basically, the winning contractors will make the purchases of equipment and services probably at the beginning of 2021, one year after the submission of the projects (some of them). As the market for this equipment evolves, people will be surprised to see that the prices at the time of purchase are higher than those they caught in projects a year ago.
Against the background of rising prices in the energy sector, consumers (households and businesses) have begun to look for alternative solutions, either for energy production or for saving.
Dan Tudose, founder of the online store e-acumulatori.ro, confirmed, for StartupCafe.ro, the fact that there was an increase in prices for photovoltaic panels.
„Raw material and transport prices have risen steadily since the beginning of 2021 and until now, as a result, photovoltaic panel prices have risen by 40% since the beginning of the year and continue to rise every week. However, the depreciation period of photovoltaic systems is short, between 5 and 7 years a correctly sized photovoltaic system is depreciated.“, Said the trader of photovoltaic panels.
Regarding the beneficiaries of ElectricUp, he said that they should also expect price differences when purchasing panels compared to the prices they had in mind when developing the projects.
„We anticipate an increase of at least 15-20% in the costs of procurement and implementation of projects that were budgeted in 2020, given this increase in prices for raw materials and transport. There is a need for a faster assessment of government projects to support companies so that these risks with price increases are reduced and the beneficiaries, SMEs, have lower energy bills as soon as possible.”- explained Tudose.
The entrepreneur also found that the demand for photovoltaics has increased in recent years. “The photovoltaic systems market is constantly growing since 2019, with at least 30% every year”.
Prices have also risen at charging stations for electric cars, as Dan Tudose observed. “Homecharge charging stations have only minor price increases, directly related to the cost of transport. But high-power stations have price increases of 20-25%”.
Other energy-saving solutions, unrelated to the ElectricUp program, are increasingly in demand in the market. “Sales of heat pumps have started to grow steadily, since seven years ago, by about 20% per year. In 2021, we record the most important growth, influenced by several factors. First of all, heat pumps have the advantage of reduced costs on bills “ – said Gabriel Anica, CEO and founder of Trust Expert.
We remind you that this year, household consumers and companies have seen increases in gas prices. There were also increases in electricity prices, caused by the liberalization of the price of electricity, but also by price increases for gas.
The state instituted a compensation scheme for electricity consumption and natural gas for the cold season 2021-2022, through Emergency Ordinance 118/2021 , as amended by Parliament by Law 259/2021, so that small and medium-sized companies affected by energy prices can also benefit from the scheme.
Preliminary list of applicants declared eligible for the ElectricUp 2021-2022 program:
– .
