Post
Let The Wind Blow!
I heard on the radio today that we pay for our energy bills just as much as Germans do. I don't know about Germans, but for me ~50euros/month (this is how much I pay, the guys on the radio didn't tell the average amount and I couldn't find it either) is a lot.
And it's also a bit odd.
Romania has the highest wind energy potential in the South-East of Europe. And Dobrogea (the Southeastern part of Romania, a region already suffering from desertification) ranks second in the entire continent.
The largest wind park in Europe will be built near the Romanian towns Fantanele and Colgeac in the county of Constanta. After buying the 600 Megawatt Wind Farm Project in Romania from Continental Wind Partners last year, CEZ Group has reached an important milestone. The first wind power station has already been installed and it's scheduled to be connected to the national energy power network next spring. The Fantanele windfarm's power is comparable to a nuclear reactor and it's approximately double the size of the next largest fully permitted onshore wind farm in Europe, and triple the size of the largest current operational wind farm in Europe.
Opinions coming from the inhabitants of Fantanele are divided. Many see the benefits of the windfarm, but there are voices that claim their community pastures have been affected by this project. Although this aspect is quite unclear, the locals believe that good times are coming. The Fantanele - Colgeac project is not the only wind farm in Romania.
A group of German businessmen will invest 60 million euros in building a wind farm near Orsova. 32 wind stations with a total capacity of 50 megawatts are set to fully function this December.
Four other wind parks already exist in Tulcea county: at Baia, Topolog, Macin and Valea Nucarilor. The wind parks at Baia and Valea Nucarilor consist of three and eight installations, while Topolog and Macin feature one single turbine each.
The first offshore wind-power project in Romania will be constructed by the United States–based Blackstone Group, which will invest $1.4 billion in a 500 MW wind farm located in the Constanţa County sector of the Black Sea on a 40 km2 (15 sq mi) area situated 6 km (3.7 mi) from the shoreline. The project will consist of 100 wind turbines producing 5MW each; they will be installed in water up to 50 m (160 ft) deep. The project is expected to be commissioned in 2011.
There are many, many others wind farm projects functioning or in progress in this great, great country. A full list here.
I'm all for sustainable development. But I don't understand something.
With all these sustainable & supposedly less expensive tehnologies, we, Romanians, still pay shitloads of money for our daily energy needs.
Comments
The price of production at the foot of a windmill is about 6 to 9 Eurocent onshore and 12 to 25 offshore.
6 to 9 Eurocents/ KW?
Nice topic to raise. Sometimes I do not understand a lot of tariff calculation for energy, heating and etc. in Latvia too.
I can only agree… It was WEIRD for me to see what people pay for heat, energy etc. in both Moldova and Bulgaria, in many cases as much as they would have done in Sweden.
The price in production…
And the price in installation:
1500 to 2000 Euros by KW installed.
@Aija - I don’t understand it either. And I had to pick one, otherwise I would have paid the biggest price possible.
@Daniel - I know someone in Sweden, who lives near the Polar Circle in a house & pays just a little more than I do (and I live in a 2 rooms apartment, in a Mediterranean climate). It’s weird.
@Paul - I’m not sure I understand you.
This post was also meant to showcase that we have a lot of potential for sustainable development. Some of it is used, but the average person doesn’t feel any difference (in price, or service) when comparing modern, sustainable technology with the old, classic one. This might just be one of the reasons this kind of projects lack citizen’s trust.
If I understand you, they have not seen that using new energy bring a lot of advantages.
The experience of Suede which have chosen to disposed of 100% new energy gives them a better productivity.
We must experience it!
Yup, Paul, you got it right.
I know about successful projects, too, and I have patience and hope.
But if you go to another Romanian and tell him about the Suede example, (s)he will tell you that Romania’s not Sweden.
You must have a Romanian experience of it.
May be there is?
If you have not you must make it very quickly.
Peak oil is coming!
From what you can see in the post, there is more than one Romanian experience of it. The problem is the Romanian experience of sustainable energy is so far expensive. And people don’t want expensive, because they can’t afford it.
I understand what you see ..
In the short term it is more expensive; in the long term it is less expensive.
The benefit is not immediately visible!
Just to clarify, the prices Paul talks about in the first comment are per kilowatt hour (kWh). On top of those prices comes the price of grid construction and maintenance, and administrative overhead and business profits. So far, it seems the Romanian wind power is still being rolled out, with the first phase of the park you write about coming online at the end of the year?
In Germany wind energy has helped to reduce prices by reducing the need for peak power generation. Whether that is also the case in Romania, I don’t know, it depends upon your price structure. Onshore wind is now competitive with gas and oil power plants. In the EU it’s even more competitive because no emission trading credits are required. In terms of price development, it should become competitive with nuclear and coal in five to ten years.
I agree all, thanks!
The 1st section of Colceag-Fantanele park is going to be included in the national energy network next spring.
There are other wind mills that are already used, but on a much smaller scale, providing energy to a couple of buildings each.
Thank you for clearing things out, the pricing makes much more sense now.
If you want to see what is it in Spain, you can find it here:
https://demanda.ree.es/eolica.html
When you have a look on the time you must see that production never fall to zero.
Spain can produce more!
Thank you for the Spanish link, Paul.
I have another one:
http://meteo.region-nord.com/vent.php
You can see that wind blows more on the sea that on the ground!
The Baltic sea has a great potential!