Verbund, Austria’s largest energy producer, resumed a 57 MW project in Tulcea, and the new inauguration date is 2024.
The investment required for one megawatt of onshore wind farm stands at some EUR1.5 million, so Verbund’s project could amount to EUR85 million
“That was a project put on hold due to the changes in the support scheme, but they decided to resume it,” market sources say.
National grid company Transelectrica website shows that Verbund renewed its contract at the end of 2019. The officials of the company did not provide any more information by press time.
Besides wind farms, Verbund has another interest on the Romanian market, having launched a green hydrogen project, Blue Danube, which includes several European countries, last year.
Its Romanian partner for Blue Danube is Hidroelectrica, the largest local electricity generation company.
There are some 307 MW of wind farm projects with grid connection agreements at the moment, according to Transelectrica data, including Verbund. This agreement guarantees the investor that once the investment completed, it will have access to the national grid.
Another company with a connection agreement secured at the end of 2019 is Beta Wind, which is working on a 151 MW project that will be delivered in stages. The first wind turbines should be installed in 2025 and the last in 2027.
Besides the 307 MW with grid connection agreements, another 460 MW secured the technical connection permits. The approval for a 363 MW wind farm, Pechea Eolian in Galati, came last month.
Therefore, there are more than 700 MW of wind farms approved in some way or another by Transelectrica, as 1.4 GW could be installed in Romania in the next five years.
This would be the second wave of green power investments after Romania attracted more than EUR4.5 billion investments in 2009-2014 and was the tenth best country in the world for such projects at the time, according to EY. The sudden changes made to the support scheme caused the country to drop off the radar of investors, but with the new green energy targets, the sector seems head towards a new wave of growth.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)