‘A lot of interest’: Romania set to pass first offshore wind law
‘A lot of interest’: Romania set to pass first offshore wind law | Windpower Monthly
Romania is expected to pass its first offshore wind law in the coming months as it targets 3GW of Black Sea capacity by 2032, according to the national energy regulator.
The draft legislation – which was approved by the Senate in February – includes plans to use a contract for difference-like support scheme for offshore wind farms.
George Niculescu, president of the energy regulatory authority ANRE, told the WindEurope 2024 conference in Bilbao that there has been “a lot of interest” in Romania’s nascent offshore wind sector.
Romania has the infrastructure necessary for offshore wind deployment, including a port in Constanța that “can accommodate all of the manufacturers”, and which can assist in other offshore wind buildout in other Black Sea countries’ waters, Niculescu said.
Romania’s first large-scale projects will use turbines with fixed-bottom foundations. “We will see” about floating”, he added.
Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.