Swiss-based European integrated energy company, MET Group announced its entry into the Romanian renewables market, with the acquisition of a 100 per cent stake in a solar project currently at a late planning stage. The 52 megawatt-peaks (MWp) project is expected to reach ready-to-build status by the first quarter of 2023.
The project with an expected energy production of approximately 82 gigawatt-hours (GWh) per year – corresponding to the average annual consumption of 50,000 households – is located in southern Romania, near Bucharest and is set to be put into operation in 2024.
Romania represents the fourth additional country this year in which MET Group has acquired renewable energy projects after Italy, Spain and Poland. MET has announced the acquisition of a 213 MWp photovoltaic (PV) project pipeline in Italy, a 50 MWp ready-to-build PV project in Spain and a 60 MWp PV project in Poland. The Italian projects are part of Keppel MET Renewables, a new joint venture with MET’s strategic partner Keppel Infrastructure, pursuing renewable energy opportunities in Western Europe.
“We already have solar and wind farm projects in Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Italy and Spain,” said Christian Hürlimann, Renewables CEO of MET Group. “And now, we onboard our first PV project in Romania which is a nice fit to our growing renewables generation portfolio. As we aim to build a geographically diversified renewables portfolio in Europe, MET also targets renewable energy investments in Germany and other Western European countries. Our expansion strategy focuses particularly on European markets where we already have a local presence, building on our existing operations across MET Group and providing renewable energy to our local customers.”
Indeed, the Romanian PV project fits well into MET Group’s strategic vision to grow its renewables portfolio in Europe and represents an important milestone towards achieving the Group’s renewables growth target. Within MET, a dedicated Green Assets Division provides all the necessary expertise and support to the renewable expansion strategy, with a target for the Group of reaching a 2 GW installed capacity portfolio by 2026, thus playing an active role in the European energy transition.
“It is great to add Romania to our renewables generation portfolio with such a promising project,” added Octavian Georgescu, Head of Origination Renewables. “We have been looking at the Romanian market for some time and managed to grow great partnerships with local developers, and also a substantial pipeline that we are looking into for potential further acquisitions. I am positive about the Romanian renewables market which is mature, while still providing healthy risk-return perspectives for the investors.”
MET Group is already long-established in Romania for over 13 years with its local subsidiary, MET Romania Energy, supplying electricity, natural gas and energy services to households and industrial consumers.
