Le Monde: Romanian seaside, the new El Dorado for wind energy

Business | romania insider | August 15, 2010 at 5:25 pm

A recent article by French daily newspaper Le Monde points out to the increasing activity on wind farming in South- Eastern Romania, in Dobrogea area, where several wind energy projects have taken off recently, and their effects over the local community. “In these isolated areas, the wind is the only certainty,” writes Mirel Bran for Le Monde. “The poverty of this area is visible by naked eye, and the inhabitants have for centuries been under the assault of the wind.”

“But the wind turns to their favor,” Le Monde goes on. It mentions the benefits local inhabitants have from the foreign investors which have started wind farms in the area, such as CEZ in the Fantanele area. Some of the inhabitants in the area receive up to EUR 3,000 a year, an amount some of the peasants there could not put aside during their entire life, writes the article. Besides the yearly amounts, inhabitants have also been able to find jobs within these projects. “People dress better, says Filofteia Stanciu, quoted by Le Monde . “You can see they are richer. But there are some who have lost their heads over this and have bought luxury cars just to show off. But anyway, everyone does what they think, but everything changes,” the women said, quoted by the French newspaper.

Read the entire article here (in French).