Romania Celebrates Europe's Largest Onshore Windfarm

---

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) -- The last turbine at Europe's largest onshore windfarm has just been connected to the Romanian electricity grid and will undergo trials over the coming months before the facility is fully commissioned.

The Fantanele-Cogealac windfarm boasts 240 wind turbines with a combined generating capacity of 600-megawatts (MW). It is located in one of Europe's windiest spots in the Romanian province of Dobrudja, 17 kilometres (km) from the Black Sea. The 2.5 MW wind turbines used in phase two come from GE Energy, a division of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) (Fairfield, Connecticut), and cover a massive area 12km long and 6km wide. The combined Fantanele-Cogealac windfarm will be capable of generating enough electricity for approximately one million households.

The windfarm will help cement Romania's growing importance as a location of wind-related energy projects. CEZ contracted GE to supply turbines for the second phase of the project back at the end of 2009. For additional information, see September 14, 2009, article - Europe's Largest Onshore Windfarm Moves Forward.

"When we entered this project, Romania had mere 14-megawatts of installed capacity in wind turbines, but now just the Fantanele-Coegalac wind park has full 600MW," explained Ondøej Šafáø, Fantanele-Cogealac Project Manager for CEZ Romania, part of CEZ Group (PRG:BAACEZ) (Prague, Czech Republic). "CEZ has thus significantly contributed to a higher proportion of green energy generation in Romania."

Stephan Ritter, GE's General Manager for Renewable Sources, added: "We have entered the trial operation phase today, during which we are going to thoroughly check all wind turbine operation parameters and performance. We are using a state-of-the-art wind turbine technology that ensures a high efficiency and reliability in a wide range of weather conditions. This significantly increases the wind park production capacity".

CEZ has invested around €1.1 billion ($1.4 billion) in the project, which is seen as vital for Romania to improve its renewable energy generation capacity under European Union guidelines. According to the European Wind Energy Association, Romania only had 10 MW of wind generation equipment installed at the end of 2008, accounting for less than 1% of installed generating capacity. Over the first three quarters of 2012, CEZ claimed that the return on investment for the Fantanele-Cogealac windfarm has been high, contributing over $512,000 to the CEZ Group's overall financial results for the first nine months.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, and eight offices outside of North America, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.