Romanian oil and gas producer OMV Petrom has bought a 710MW solar PV portfolio in its home country, which it said will be one of Southeastern Europe’s ‘most significant’ solar projects.
The portfolio is located in Teleorman county in the South of the country, and Petrom’s transaction is expected to be completed in Q2 next year, when construction will begin. Grid connections have already been secured for the projects.
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Danish developer Jantzen Renewables ApS will develop the portfolio.
Franck Neel, an OMV Petrom executive board member responsible for gas and power activity, said: “This purchase supports the achievement of OMV Petrom’s strategic objective of having an installed renewables capacity of at least 1 GW by 2030, including through partnerships. In addition, it allows us to adequately respond to the ever-increasing demand for green energy, contributing at the same time to the strengthening of Romania’s security of supply and energy resilience.”
OMV Petrom currently has an annual hydrocarbon production of approximately 43 million barrels of oil equivalent and is one of the largest fossil fuel companies in Southeastern Europe.
Romania is being recognised as one of the most quickly emerging solar PV markets in Europe. PV Tech has published a number of pieces focusing on the Romanian market, including a discussion of the draw of Romania’s market ahead of the contracts for difference scheme set to come online this year and the plans for a 10GW module assembly plant from AE Solar.
A report from the International Energy Agency earlier this year which found that solar PV is on track to see more investment than oil for the first time in history this year also found that large fossil fuel companies, like OMV Petrom, were investing only around 5% of their average capital expenditure into clean energy technologies in 2022. Last year was a red letter year for many fossil fuel companies, reporting huge profits and pushing an increase in investment into unabated fossil fuel generation.