Romania, Bulgaria could jointly unlock Black Sea's offshore wind potential

Offshore wind deployment could give a major boost to Romania’s decarbonisation efforts if opportunities for a joint project with Bulgaria are explored, according to independent Romanian energy and climate policy think-tank Energy Policy Group (EPG).

The organisation last week presented a scenario that studies the potential for an artificial Romanian-Bulgarian energy island and 3 GW of offshore turbines installed by each country. In this case, the two nations will be able to more efficiently unlock the offshore wind potential in the Black Sea and address grid challenges. Additionally, such a project is seen to improve the interconnection capacity with other countries in the Black Sea region, including Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan, EPG said.

The potential development off Shabla in northeastern Bulgaria and Constanta, Romania, implies total expenditures of some EUR 8.4 billion (USD 9.08bn) for Romania. The levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) will be EUR 85 per MWh for 3 GW of offshore turbines and an equally shared investment for the proposed energy island with Bulgaria.

EPG estimates that roughly 15 GW of offshore wind turbine capacity must be installed in Romania’s Black Sea exclusive economic area (EEA) by 2050 for the country to become carbon neutral. According to its calculations, a 3-GW project would generate EUR 6.3 billion of value added to the Romanian economy, or 2.6% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) for 2021.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.081)

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