December 6 (Renewables Now) – Swiss-based energy firm MET Group on Tuesday announced the acquisition of a 52-MWp solar project in Romania, marking its entry into the country’s renewables market.
The company said it has agreed to buy an unnamed special purpose vehicle that holds the project, which is located near Bucharest in southern Romania and is at a late planning stage. The scheme is expected to become shovel-ready by the first quarter of 2023 and come onstream in 2024. The facility would generate some 82 GWh per year, equivalent to the annual demand of 50,000 households, MET Group said.
The company has also acquired renewable energy projects in Italy, Spain and Poland this year. In Italy, the acquisition of a 213-MWp photovoltaic (PV) project pipeline is part of a recently announced joint venture with Keppel Infrastructure focused on renewable energy in Western Europe.
MET Group said the Romanian solar project is in line with its strategy to grow its renewables portfolio in Europe and its target of 2 GW of installed renewable capacity by 2026.
MET Group has been operating in Romania for more than 13 years, providing electricity, natural gas and energy services to residential and industrial consumers.
Christian Huerlimann, MET Group’s Renewables CEO, said the company already has solar and wind projects in Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Italy, Spain and now in Romania. “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,” the executive added.
According to Octavian Georgescu, head of Origination Renewables, the Romanian renewables market “is mature, while still providing healthy risk-return perspectives for the investors.”
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