Europe’s largest renewable investor to build in Ialomita County a wind farm of millions of euros

Ialomita Power company, whose shareholders are Energias de Portugal (EDP) and Renovatio Trading, will build in Facaeni, Ialomita County, the second largest wind park in Romania, following an investment of EUR 300mln. Ialomita Power has obtained from the Regulatory Agency the license to establish the Facaeni wind farm, with a total installed power of 264MW. Since the installation cost of 1MW of wind power is around EUR 1.2mln, we can estimate that the Ialomita Power’s investment amounts to over EUR 300mln. Once all the turbines assembled, the Facaeni wind farm will climb directly to the second place in the top of largest wind parks in Romania, after CEZ’s farm in Fantanele. It will also be one of the largest onshore wind parks in Europe. EDP, the electricity company owned by the Portuguese state, is one of the largest European investors in renewable energy. EDP also controls in Romania other wind parks totaling over 200MW of installed power. Renovatio Trading is a company registered in Cyprus and one of the largest energy traders on the Romanian market. A few years ago, the company belonged to Piatra Neamt Mayor Gheroghe Stefan “Pinalti”. EDP owns 85% in Ialomita Power, the remaining stake being held by Renovatio Trading. Romania has around 2,500MW installed in wind energy, investments worth several billions of euros, being one of the most attractive countries for investors in the field. The investors’ stake is the support scheme for green energy produced, through the green certificates system. Under the law, a wind farm receives from the state 1 green certificate for each MWh delivered into the system and the price of a certificate on the free market fluctuates between EUR 28 and EUR 58. Until July 1^st, the subsidy was of 2 certificates for each MWh delivered into the grid. The Government has reduced the support scheme, promising that investors would recover their outstanding certificates in 2017, but the legislation does not provide anything specific in this regard.