Enel Green Power (EGP) officially inaugurated on Friday the Salbatica 2 windfarm in Tulcea County. The windfarm has a total capacity of 70 MW and became operational in December 2011. All the 70 wind turbines will become operational by the end of this year. Its production capacity can cover the needs of 70,000 households. Ever since it entered the local market in 2008, EGP has invested EUR 400 M in wind power projects that total an installed capacity of 269 MW and is working on turbines with a total capacity of 202 MW, 140 of which will be ready by the end of this year. The windfarms that are currently operational are located in the Tulcea and Caras-Severin counties. Those windfarms are: Agighiol – Nucarilor Valley (34 MW, became operational in 2010), Salbatica 1 – Nucarilor Valley and Nufaru (70 MW, became operational in 2010 and 2011), Salbatica 2 – Nucarilor Valley, Nufaru and Bestepe (70 MW, became operational in 2011), Corugea – Casimcea (70 MW, became operational in 2011) and Moldova Noua – Sfanta Elena and Coronini (48 MW, a first stage of approximately 25 MW became operational in 2011). The company plans to develop another 202 MW in wind power, as well as 25 MW in micro hydropower plant projects, from now to 2016. Of the total 202 MW, the largest project is a windfarm located in Constanta County, one that will have an installed capacity of 120 MW. This project is already in execution. Moreover, EGP Romania will develop a 60 MW windfarm in Targusor locality. The difference up to 202 MW will be covered by stage two of the windfarm project in Moldova Noua. “In 2012 EGP aims to increase reasonably and during the next five years the company wants to invest some 6 bln Euros in order to produce more than 4500 MW. Romania represents an important objective for our company,” said Roberto De Ambrogio, Head of Business Development at Enel Green Power.“Today we reached 1,253 MW functional in windfarms alone. We have a constructions permit and, basically, an operational permit, for another 1,400 MW. A total of 2,653 MW in wind power alone. Fortunately, we have 440 MW already functional in mico hydropower plants. 28 MW are under construction in solar power, and with the already functional 2 MW we have 30 MW in solar power. But 800 MW have operational permits and here I estimate we will have 800 MW functional in half a year’s time. (…) Likewise, we are talking about 64 MW in biomass. We didn’t believe investors will be drawn in such high numbers and with such a large volume of investments,” Iulian Iancu, President of the Lower Chamber’s Commission for Industries and Services, told a press conference on the occasion of the windfarm inauguration.
