Oil producer OMV Petrom is buying several solar PV projects with 710 MW combined capacity in its home market of Romania under an agreement, as it targets to grow its installed renewables capacity to a minimum of 1 GW by 2030.

Located in Teleorman County of Romania, the projects are being developed by Danish developer Jantzen Renewables ApS. With OMV Petrom backing the portfolio, these will enter construction in Q2/2024 to reach ready-to-build (RTB) phase.

The 710 MW capacity is in possession of grid connection access to the national electricity transmission network. Once online, these will generate around 23,900 GWh for 25 years.

OMV Petrom’s Member of the Executive Board, responsible for gas and power activity Franck Neel said, “This purchase supports the achievement of OMV Petrom’s strategic objective of having an installed renewables capacity of at least 1 GW by 2030, including through partnerships. In addition, it allows us to adequately respond to the ever-increasing demand for green energy, contributing at the same time to the strengthening of Romania’s security of supply and energy resilience.”

OMV of Austria is the majority owner of OMV Petrom while the Romanian Energy Ministry owns 20.7% stake in the company.

Romania is encouraging the proliferation of renewables, especially solar in the country. Earlier this year in January 2023, the government lowered value added tax (VAT) on solar panels in the country to 5% to encourage prosumers and accelerate solar installations (see Romania Lowers Value Added Tax On Solar PV Panels).

The country is also set to come up as a solar manufacturing center for Europe, after the European Commission approved €259 million state funding to back investments in solar cells, panels and battery production in Romania (see Solar PV Manufacturing Slated To Come To Romania).