Romania climbed from the 16th to the 13th place among the most attractive countries in the world on the investments in the renewable energy, due to a new piece of legislation on electricity from renewable energy sources (RES-E), according to the “Country Attractiveness Indices” report recently launched by Ernst & Young. The new piece of legislation received EU approval after a two-year wait, increasing the amount of green certificates (GCs) for each technology, and creating one of the most favorable incentive schemes in Europe, found the report.

Even if the new GCs scheme will have an impact on all renewable energy projects, the wind energy should generate the biggest increase, according to the report. In 2009, Romania was producing only 12 MW of renewable energy, while the production capacity reported a significant increase in 2010, up to 464 MW, and in September this year it reported an increase of 34 percent, to 623 MW.

“Czech utility company CEZ has completed 338 MW of its Fantanele - Cogealac project which, at 600 MW, will be the largest onshore wind farm in Europe once complete at the end of 2012. In March, Iberdrola started work on its 1,500 MW project, which could form the largest onshore wind power installation in the world when complete in 2017,” according to Cornelia Bumbacea, Partner and leader of the transaction assistance department of Ernst & Young Romania.

Romania entered this top in 2010, and went up 9 places in the last year, outrunning countries like Poland, Belgium, or Japan.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Sxc.hu)