The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Florin Ionuț BARBU, has signed the Order for the approval of the State Aid Scheme to support investments in new electricity production capacities from renewable sources for self-consumption by enterprises in the agricultural and food industry sectors.

Starting from November 5, 2023, farmers and processors can submit projects to establish new electricity production capacities from solar or wind sources in the agricultural sector, as well as land improvements and the food industry.

The source of funding is the Modernization Fund managed by the Ministry of Energy, and the scheme will be administered by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development through the Agency for Rural Investment Financing.

This scheme, based on a competitive bidding procedure, applies to projects that aim to:

a) Establish new electricity production capacities from solar sources (under 1 MW and over 1 MW), with or without integrated storage capacity.

b) Establish new electricity production capacities from wind sources (under 1 MW and over 1 MW), with or without integrated storage capacity.

The beneficiaries can be:

• Enterprises in the agricultural sector (micro-enterprises, small, medium, and large enterprises, including sole proprietors, family businesses, and agricultural cooperatives or agricultural cooperative companies with physical assets for agricultural production and/or food processing), legally established and registered with the National Trade Register Office (ONRC).
• Enterprises in the food industry sector (micro-enterprises, small, medium, and large enterprises, including sole proprietors, family businesses), legally established and registered with ONRC.
• Organizations/federations of land improvement organizations (OUAI/FOUAI) established in accordance with Law No. 138/2004 on land improvements, republished, with subsequent amendments and additions.

Eligible CAEN codes are:

• For beneficiaries from points i and ii: CAEN 01 - Agriculture, hunting, and related services; CAEN code 10 - Food Industry and CAEN 11 - Beverage Manufacturing.

At the time of submitting support applications, applicants must be authorized for the activity of electricity production, CAEN class 3511 - Electricity production.

By self-consumption, it is understood as the electricity produced, delivered, and used locally by the beneficiary, representing a minimum of 70% of the annual production of the financed renewable energy facility.

Regarding investment projects in electricity production and/or energy storage capacities:

Potential beneficiaries can submit multiple projects if the investments target different consumption locations, with a maximum value of EUR 20,000,000 per beneficiary.

The maximum amount of state aid granted under the scheme per installed MW is as follows:

For wind energy:

• EUR 1,400,000 per MW for capacities installed under 1 MW, inclusive.
• EUR 700,000 per MW for capacities installed over 1 MW.

For solar energy:

• EUR 1,000,000 per MW for capacities installed under 1 MW, inclusive.
• EUR 500,000 per MW for capacities installed over 1 MW.

This scheme is based on a competitive bidding procedure and applies only to new installations for electricity production from renewable energy sources with or without integrated storage capacity.

The order can be consulted here: Link to the order