Study: Offshore wind farms may help Romania achieve decarbonisation targets

Romania and other Black Sea countries can use offshore wind power resources to achieve the Green Deal targets, concludes a CEPS study based on World Bank data estimates of the wind energy potential in the region.

Romania's exclusive economic zone has a total potential of 76 GW offshore wind power, including 22 GW in the shallow water area that offers higher profitability for such investments. The deep-water area, where floating wind farms can be installed, accounts for about 54MW potential wind power capacity.

The study admits the importance of economic efficiency studies, particularly for floating wind farms, and the intermittent nature of the wind power generation - but it notes that the offshore wind power capacity is more than three times Romania's installed capacity. Meanwhile, a significant part of Romania's 20 GW installed power capacity is obsolete and needs to be replaced.

Investors haven't seriously considered developing offshore wind farms so far, mainly because of the high costs. However, costs are falling rapidly, and, in many cases, fixed offshore installations no longer require subsidies, CEPS argues.

The Romanian state-controlled hydropower company Hidroelectrica mentioned a 300MW offshore wind farm project in its 2020-2026 investment plan completed this year. However, the company drafted the investment plan on short notice at the Government's request to explain why it could not pay more money to the public budget.

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