Catalin Cepisca, Raiffeisen Bank: "It's Not Just Production Anymore" | SEBS 2026

Описание: Renewable energy project financing has entered a new phase of complexity, observed Catalin Cepisca, Senior Director of the Energy, Metals and Utilities Department at Raiffeisen Bank, at the Solar Energy Bucharest Summit, 5th edition. From the bank's perspective, the business model for renewable projects has fundamentally shifted — it is no longer sufficient to focus solely on energy production, as projects must now participate in multiple revenue streams to achieve bankability.

According to Cepisca, Romania's renewable energy development happened extremely quickly, which led to a significant accumulation of projects in the pipeline. However, many of these projects are not yet sufficiently developed — lacking the technical, legal, and commercial maturity required by banks to approve project finance structures.

Cepisca highlighted that today's projects must generate income from several sources simultaneously: energy production, capacity markets, balancing markets, and potentially trading. Raiffeisen Bank has the capacity to finance producers — whether solar or wind — but requires a comprehensive monitoring and multi-market participation framework, not just production data.

He stressed that within the next one to two years, the market will see a large volume of energy delivered at fixed prices through PPAs. The key question is what happens if PPAs do not materialize as expected — a recurring concern in the sector. He also noted that almost all project developers have modified their ATR (grid connection approval) to enable energy sales.

Cepisca raised a systemic risk for Romania's grid: in approximately five years, congestion in the transmission network is expected to become a serious challenge. This is not unique to Romania — Germany, for instance, used European capex funds to install 2.5 GW but is now seeing the limitations of assets that cannot trade freely. Romania must plan ahead to avoid the same bottlenecks.

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