NERO Renewables (NERO), which stands for Netherlands – Romania, is in the process of realising 3 fully permitted wind farms in Romania. They will be directly connected to the national high voltage grid and will annually inject 3 terawatt hours (TWh) of renewable energy into the European grid, extractable in any of the EU member states. This is 2.6 % of the total Dutch electricity production.
Recently the Dutch government published a review stating that the Netherlands will miss its 2020 target for renewable energy production and greenhouse gas emissions. Based on current projections, green schemes will produce 12.4% of the Dutch energy supply by 2020, significantly below the 14% target agreed with the European Union. By adopting the 1GW NERO project, the Netherlands can still realise its wind power ambitions. The legislation to support such an implementation is in place and is part of the ‘Renewable Energy Directives’ (RED 2009/28 / EC). To help member states reaching their 2020 targets, 3 possible cooperation mechanisms were introduced by the EU, to enable them entering into mutual agreements to cover their individual targets: “Statistical Transfer”, “Joint-Project”, “Joint-Support Scheme”. NERO ‘s proposal to the Dutch government is based on the ‘Joint Project’ mechanism, which means that the Netherlands and Romania enter into a one-off agreement, and that the 3 TWh of renewable energy will count for the Dutch national renewable energy target during the entire lifetime (25 years or more) of the project. The Joint Project mechanism can be implemented within the existing Dutch renewable support scheme (SDE+).