Abattoir Waste, Animal Excrements Turned Into Electricity

Ovidiu Vrânceanu, Braşov

Carmolimp, a company based in Ucea de Jos, Brasov County, will invest 4 million EUR in building a plant that transforms abattoir waste and animal excrements into electric energy. "We submitted the project last year to obtain half of this sum from the Environment Fund, which is financed by the Government of Romania. We expect a positive answer to come in the next few days, " Carmolimp CEO Paul Soneriu stated yesterday.

He explained that he had opted for governmental funding because it would have taken longer to obtain funding from the Regional Operational Programme - Increase of Economic Competitiveness. "We have had our experience with SAPARD and governmental funding is disbursed the same way," Soneriu added.

Soneriu further explained that the project was based on the company"s need for 624 kWh. "This will be the capacity of the system at daytime. It will be reduced to 50% at nighttime, when we will also deliver energy to the national grid," he said. His expectation is that the investment would be amortized in three-to-five years, depending on the value of the green certificates received from the National Energy Regulatory Authority.

Carmolimp was established in 1993 and is 100% Romanian-owned. The company operates one of the largest charcuterie factories in the country, with a daily output of 200 tonnes. Plans for this year include opening a dairy factory and a chain of franchises branded "CarmOlimp."

Last year, Carmolimp invested 150,000 EUR in an online shop, ebu.ro, carrying electronics, home appliances and IT&C products. Estimates for this year point to revenues of 7-8 million EUR from this line of business. As Carmolimp has a proprietary transportation fleet, ebu.ro offers free shipment in Romania for all orders exceeding 100 RON. The start-up investment was allocated to training, human resources, hardware and the e-shop platform. Ebu.ro has 20 employees.

• Plans to produce energy from chicken droppings

Earlier last year, Catalin Munteanu, a businessman from Codlea, announced plans to produce green energy from the droppings of the chickens in the nearby farm. Based on an initial investment of 9 million EUR, of which 70% would be provided by the European Union, the plant was intended to produce approximately 60 MW per day.

Romania has an obligation to derive 22% of its total energy production from renewable sources. The company in Codlea contracted electricity company Electrica, who appeared interested in the project and a future partnership. According to a regulation by the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE), 1 kWh of energy from renewable sources costs 0.132 RON. Additionally the producer will receive for each megawatt of green energy 1 green certificate tradable on the energy exchange.

Based on the estimated production, Bio-Esco Grand will have earnings of 3,000 EUR per day, as the current market price of 1 green certificate is 50 EUR.