ROMANIA: Head of ANRE – The recently adopted offshore wind farm law will bring billions, with huge potential for the port of Constanța
Share
George Niculescu, currently head of ANRE, but the one who in the past developed the offshore wind farm law, spoke, in an interview for the local press, about its impact on the area.
“This project means billions of euros in this area, a huge potential for the Port of Constanța, because all activities will be carried out in the Port of Constanța, they will need local contributions, people, equipment, facilities, machinery. I see nothing but benefits for Constanța”, said George Niculescu, who is from Constanța, for the publication Replica Online.
“It is the first time in a very long time that a field of activity of the Romanian economy is regulated by itself. We had nothing, not even a procedure… If someone came in 2021 and wanted to invest millions of euros in the Black Sea, to produce electricity as they can do in the North Sea in the Atlantic Ocean or as it happens in countries like England and Spain and Scotland, they couldn’t do it, they didn’t know where to get their first permit, who issues them the building permit, where they rent land from. And practically from December 2021, with the support of the World Bank and the support of the American government, we made a draft law with each procedure, with deadlines for each institution in such a way as to cover all the needs of investors. I didn’t think it would last this long”, recalls the current head of ANRE, at that time state secretary in the Ministry of Energy.
“I said that I must identify myself with a far-reaching project, I must identify myself with a great project and then I chose this project, it really took a long time, it was voted by the Parliament, it was promulgated by President Iohannis, I received congratulations from the strategic partners for the way this project turned out… First, the Ministry of Energy must hire a consultant for the delimitation of the perimeters, so that the one who comes to invest knows in which areas he can install these wind turbines. They will not overlap with maritime transport activities, with tourist activities, with fishing activities, they will be located on the sea, so everything will be done respecting all the environmental provisions and all the activities that are carried out economically in the Black Sea”, he added Niculescu.
In April, the Romanian Parliament adopted the Law on Offshore Wind Energy, a bill initiated by the Ministry of Energy.
“Romania entered the straight line towards wind power production off the Black Sea. At the rate required by the bill, in 2032 we will be able to have the first MW of wind energy produced offshore in the National Energy System. At the same time, the production of offshore wind energy will allow us to strengthen the Romanian industry through the domestic production of green hydrogen and value-added products based on green ammonia”, said at that time the Minister of Energy, Sebastian Burduja.
