Austrian independent power producer (IPP) Renalfa has acquired a 258MW solar project in Teleorman, Romania, which it expects to start commercial operation in 2027.
The project, to be built in Teleorman County on Romania’s southern border, will include 1GWh of co-located battery energy storage system (BESS) assets, although Renalfa has not provided further information on the products it plans to use in either the project’s solar or storage elements.
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Romania plans to increase its domestic energy production capacity to 32GW by 2030, according to the most recent draft of its National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP), although the government’s target of generating 38.3% of power from renewable sources is lower than the European Commission’s recommendation of 41%.
“We are thrilled to finalise the acquisition of this landmark project in Romania,” said Renalfa director Nikola Antonov. “This project is a testament to our commitment to driving the energy transition in the central and eastern Europe region and delivering innovative, renewable energy solutions that address the challenges of tomorrow”.
The grid remains one of the key “challenges of tomorrow” in central and eastern Europe, and Renalfa will hope the use of BESS assets will help overcome this obstacle. Last year, at Solar Media’s Large Scale Solar Central Eastern Europe event, speakers discussed the weaknesses of the region’s grid infrastructure and the role of storage technology in tackling these issues.
Renalfa’s investment is also notable, as speakers at the event also discussed the importance of securing finance for solar projects in eastern Europe, with developers needing to focus on ‘ready-to-bank’, not ‘ready-to-build’, project development. The Renalfa IPP company itself is a joint venture, operated by Renalfa Solarpro Group GmbH and the French infrastructure fund manager RGreen Invest, and the investors collaborated on a 237.6MW PV project in Bulgaria as recently as last November.
Across its solar, wind and storage projects, Renalfa has a total portfolio of 2GW of capacity, with around 300MW of projects currently in operation and a further 460MW under construction.
