Wind Energy

Romania includes wind energy in its electricity mix

The Romanian wind power sector’s capacity build-up is particularly spectacular. The country, which only had one single 18-MW wind farm in 2009, had 982 MW of installed wind turbines capacity by the end of 2011 according to the Romanian wind energy association.

Central to this growth is the construction of Europe’s biggest wind farm in the villages of Fantanele and Cogealac, in the Dobrogea region.

The wind power project will comprise a total of 240 General Electric 2.5-MW wind turbines and is led by the Czech utility company CEZ. Other European energy majors have a foothold in the Romanian market.

Italy’s Enel Green Power already has about one hundred megawatts in service and intends to install another 200 MW in the next 18 months.

Portugal’s EDP is also involved in two wind farm projects with combined capacity of 230 MW, near the country’s only nuclear power plant, Cernavoda.

For its part, Iberdrola (of Spain) plans to construct an 80-MW wind farm in the village of Mihai Viteazu, in the south-east, and also plans to construct a further 50 wind power projects by 2017, which could form the future 1,500-MW capacity wind energy complex of Dobrogea.

The Romanian government’s decision to double the value of green certificates for the production of wind power and hold the value until 2017 is behind this development drive. At the same time it has raised the penalties for distributors that fall short of target. The ceiling price of a green certificate has been increased to € 0.055 per kWh and the minimum price to € 0.027 per kWh.

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