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Fixed prices for 15 years regardless of the market, how solar energy businesses are favored
2026-03-11 23:50:11 / EKONOMI&SOCIALE
A large number of companies are concentrated in certain areas and produce up to 2 megawatts.
The pattern is clear, dozens of different companies on paper, but an intense concentration in a few square kilometers. If they had merged, many of them would constitute parks of tens of megawatts that would require more in-depth environmental and competitive procedures. But divided into two megawatts each, they pass as small projects, taking advantage of legal facilities.
ERE: The state, through approval for the construction of power plants up to 2 MW, guarantees the purchase of energy for a period of 15 years. At the same time, these producers are obliged to provide 2% of the annual electricity production as royalty, free of charge, to the responsible ministry.
One such example is that of businessman Refat Sali. He is the owner of 60% of the shares in two companies, 'SUN AVENUE' and 'SUNPOWER 2017', which have obtained permits as small projects with two megawatts each in the same area. The same scheme is also used by the company "Albanian General Electricity" owned by Besar Llapashtica. The subject is a shareholder with a low percentage in 6 different companies that have obtained permits for solar energy. He is also a shareholder in a large number of other energy-related companies.
This distribution of shares shows a clear pattern of horizontal expansion in the market: in some cases with full control (100%), in some with joint control (50%), and in many others with a symbolic participation of 1%. This raises some fundamental questions: whether we are dealing with truly independent investments or with an interest group fragmented into several legal entities that benefit from support schemes…
"We need to look in detail at the part of the law or the licensing criteria they meet or do not meet in terms of obtaining the license because there are, let's say, many question marks in the way they obtained the license," said engineer Azmer Dulevic.
It should be emphasized that the problem here is not the private businesses that have exploited the spaces, but the loopholes in the law and clientelistic favoritism...
"With photovoltaic parks up to 2 megawatts, this is done for a reason because those up to two megawatts have a tariff set by the ERE which is 100 euros per megawatt, a tariff approved by the ERE. This is a problem, the grant is a legal entity that has divided a wind farm that could have 30 megawatts and divided it into two megawatts to benefit from the 100 euro/megawatt tariff ," said Eduart Elezi, an energy expert.
"In these cases, if we are to put it in layman's terms, banks are begging to lend to a company that has received a license to build a 2, 10 or more megawatt photovoltaic park and has a guarantee that it will sell this electricity to the Albanian state. The problem begins for those investors who will then have to enter the free market and will have to find where to sell the electricity ," said journalist Emirjon Senja.
A more in-depth analysis of the declared financial statements shows that a large portion of these companies result in losses, which raises doubts about their economic sustainability in relation to the licensed projects.
"You have to declare at least such financial capacity to afford an investment that is an average of 1 million euros per installed megawatt ," said journalist Emirjon Senja.
In Law No. 24 of 2023 on renewable energy, many key mechanisms such as support schemes, auction criteria and selection of winners are not detailed. They are left to secondary legislation and institutions such as the Energy Regulatory Authority. In practice, this means: whoever has the best connections and information can benefit. It is not a fair competition, it is a game of influence. The auction model favors large projects.
"There are also major problems in the electricity transmission system, in the transmission part of the distribution that belongs to the distribution company ," said Eduart Elezi, an energy expert.
A boom in photovoltaic investments is expected to significantly increase the amount of energy produced, changing the traditional structure of the energy market. Contracts signed for a long term, fixing the price without revisions, risk resulting in losses for the state.
"When the price of energy on the stock exchange is 15 euros per megawatt, these are not affected at all by the stock exchange price and you are obliged by our taxes to buy as much as you have made the contract for 20, 25, 50, 70 or even 100 euros per megawatt for 10, 15 or 20 years and this is what needs to be seen in the licensing and criteria section ," said Azmer Dulevic, engineer.
ERE: multi-year fixed-price contracts are an instrument of support schemes for producers with the aim of increasing income security and enabling investment recovery within a certain period. In this context, the role of ERE is related to the implementation of the legal framework and the approval of general conditions and relevant regulatory elements, while the design of the support scheme is addressed within the framework of public policies./ Inside Story
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