EnergMin Burduja: Parliament might pass offshore wind energy bill in December

An offshore wind energy bill could reach government in two weeks' time, at the latest, and December should be a feasible deadline for the adoption of it, Energy Minister Sebastian Burduja told a specialist debate on Monday.

"Romania, versus other European countries, is positioned among the pioneers of this technology and we certainly have every interest to be there on the map of major investors and to harvest the great wind potential of the Black Sea, because here we have figures from experts of the World Bank , namely 75 Gigawatts, a colossal figure that we have to capitalise on for Romania, at least partially. On the other hand, we are certainly talking about green energy and we want to support Romania's green transition. We are certainly talking about off-shore energy as well. The bill was completed after a long technical process at the level of the Ministry of Energy and here we got assistance from the World Bank, and also from the US Department of State, as America is still a good example in terms of offshore wind energy production as well. We put it up for public debate, we later extended the deadline until September 1, because there was a lot of interest from the market and now we are integrating everything we have so far received. The specialist departments of the ministry are integrating the observations and we strive to come up with the bill in the Government in two weeks' time, at the latest. The bill has to be approved by the other ministries, including the Ministry of the Environment. Afterwards, it goes from the government to Parliament, and the end of the parliamentary session, December, should be a feasible deadline for the adoption of the bill," said Burduja.

He added that the Ministry of Energy will prepare a complex study on the offshore energy area, and the 2030 horizon is a realistic one for an installed capacity of 1,000 Megawatts.

"The offshore wind law is only the first step. There is now a very complex study developed by the Ministry of Energy that includes many environmental considerations, which have to be very well defined, because it is a hot topic not only for Romania, but for other countries as well. After we complete this study or at the same time making secondary legislation, it's a preparation process, including human resources of the Ministry of Energy and Transelectrica," said Burduja.

Romania's offshore wind energy potential, as assessed based on World Bank (WB) estimates, has a theoretical capacity of 76 GW, 22 GW in the form of fixed turbines and 54 GW in the form of floating turbines. In terms of the cost to benefit ratio, the first turbines that should be installed are the fixed ones.

Representatives of the energy and environmental departments on Monday participated in a conference called "No more blowing to the wind, getting closer to the start - Offshore wind projects in the Black Sea," organised by the Antena 3 CNN private broadcaster.