The farm will use 264 hectares outside the built-up area of Corbu, north of Mamaia resort in SE Romania, according to a local ad seeking input from the public about the new zoning plan proposed.
The town has also aroused the interest of other renewable energy investors such as Monsson, because the Black Sea coastal area has the best potential for wind power generation of the entire country.
Elsid officials did not return ZF’s calls for comment but the representatives of the designer of the new zoning plan said the farm would include eight 3 MW wind turbines. To install 24 MW in a wind farm should require a EUR31 million to EUR36 million, ZF has calculated based on market data.
Elsid’s wind farm could generate 50,000 MWh in a full year in operation and the company would get as many green certificates through the clean energy support scheme. The certificate price is about EUR40 at the moment, which means Elsid’s farm should get about EUR2 million support a year.
This is not Elsid’s first foray into the clean energy sector, as it already is an established green power producer via its micro-hydropower plants. It has 43 MW installed in facilities of less than 10 MW, the only hydropower plants eligible for green power support scheme put in place by Romania’s government.
Green certificates received for the electricity generated are a significant stream of revenue for Elsid, which stood at EUR11.6 million last year, according to national grid company Transelectrica data.
Elsid was one of the companies that used bilateral contracts to buy power from state-owned hydropower producer Hidroelectrica until it went insolvent. While most such contracts Hidroelectrica had were terminated by the company’s court-appointed trustee, the contracts with Elsid, Electrocarbon, Electromagnetica and Alro were kept on condition that the beneficiaries agree to pay more for the electricity they get.
Elsid had to take a price of 189 lei (EUR42.5) per megawatt instead of the previous RON102, as of the beginning of 2012, which hurt its profit driving it down from EUR17.5 million in 2011 to EUR10.7 million last year. Revenue fell by 14% from EUR87 million in 2011 to EUR75 million last year. (EUR1=RON4.4511)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)