The largest operating solar park in Romania has a capacity of 55.9 MW and is located in Ciuperceni, Satu Mare county (northwestern Romania).
Considering an average investment of around EUR1.55 million per MW installed, this puts the investment at Ciuperceni at almost EUR87 million. The price of a MW in a solar park tends to range between EUR1.3 million and EUR1.8 million.
According to the documents submitted to the Agency for Environmental Protection in Satu Mare, the project covers 136 ha. It takes around 2.5 ha of land to install 1 MW in a solar park.
The investor in this project is GPSB Solaris 48, a company which obtained the license to produce electricity in mid-October, according to data published by energy market regulator ANRE.
According to Trade Register data, the project company is 61.75% controlled by Spain’s Bester Generation.
The second largest solar project, which started operating at the end of 2013, has a capacity of 49.9 MW and is located in Giurgiu county, southern Romania. Considering the same average investment of EUR1.55 million per MW installed, this means an overall investment of over EUR77 million.
The park has 215,000 panels, with the project company being LJG Green Energy Source Gamma. According to the regulating committee held by energy market regulator ANRE on December 20, the company has already obtained the license for commercial exploitation. The majority shareholder of the project company is Austrian-based Core value Investments, according to Trade Registry data.
The third largest solar project operating in Romania was carried out by South-Korean giant Samsung in Slobozia, Giurgiu county. The project has a 45-MW capacity.
According to data of grid operator Transelectrica, at the end of November solar parks operating in Romania had a total capacity of 740.4 MW. This is equivalent to the power of one reactor of Romania’s only nuclear plant in Cernavoda, southeastern Romania.
But Transelectrica data for the end of 2012 shows that only 49.3 MW were operating at the time, which means the size of projects went up 15-fold in eleven months. Considering the average cost necessary for making one MW operational, it means the Romanian solar power sector attracted investments of over EUR1 billion in 2013.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)