Actis-backed Rezolv expands Romanian wind pipeline by 600MW

The projects come in at 300MW each and are located in the municipalities of Adamclisi & Deleni in Constanta County. They will share a 400kV substation and together will rank as one of Europe’s largest onshore wind farms, matching the capacity of Romania’s largest wind farm, the 600MW Fantanele-Cogealac facility. 

Rezolv – a renewable energy developer and operator backed by sustainable infrastructure investor Actis – is investing in the new projects alongside renewable energy investor Low Carbon, from which it also recently acquired a 51% stake in the 450MW Vis Viva wind project located near Buzau, east of Bucharest. 

Low Carbon said it has been “stewarding” the Adamclisi & Deleni and Vis Viva projects since 2020, when it first entered the projects alongside local developers and Nero Renewables. 

Alastair Hammond, chief operating officer at Rezolv, said the subsidy-free projects will be underpinned by power purchase agreements from commercial & industrial (C&I) offtakers.  

“There is significant interest from C&I users to secure longer-term, well-priced green energy,” he said.

TPA with ‘usual suspects’ to follow 

Hammond said project financing for Adamclisi & Delini will close towards the end of 2023, at which time a turbine supplier will also have been secured.  

“We are in discussions with the usual suspects,” he added, noting that turbines are expected to be in the 6MW+ class.  

Adamclisi & Delini are expected to be constructed “in a little over two years,” said Hammond.   

He added that the project is likely to encompass “at least a couple of phases” but details of this will depend, in part, on the chosen turbine manufacturer. 

While grid connection as early as 2025 is possible, “that will be a challenge to achieve” and a 2026 commissioning date is seen as more likely, he added. 

The financial close for the Vis Viva wind farm is expected to take place in the middle of 2023 and commissioning is now foreseen around the middle of 2025.  Vis Viva is being renamed “Vifor,” the Romanian word for “strong wind.” 

With the acquisition of Adamclis and Delini, Rezolv’s total renewable energy development pipeline in Romania will top 2GW. 

In November, it announced it had acquired a 1,044MW solar project from Romanian renewable energy developer Monsson. 

Most of Romania’s current 3GW in installed wind capacity came online during a boom supported by generous incentives from 2010 to 2014. 

Rezolv is also eyeing wind and solar projects in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, including Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. 

“There has been a long hiatus in Central and Eastern Europe after support regimes were stopped or rolled back” about a decade ago, said Hammond, “but [clean energy] targets are still there, and the change now is that we don’t need to rely on government subsidies.”