Romanian coal-based electricity producer Energy Complex (EC) Oltenia is planning to build eight solar power plants with a combined capacity of 725 MW at several of its thermal power plants and coalmines.
Three projects are planned to be located at the coal-fired power plants Rovinari, Turceni, and Isalnita, while additional five solar power plants are expected to be built at the coal mining sites Tismana, Tismana 2, Pinoasa, Bohorel, and Rovinari Est.
These solar projects are being developed in order to replace coal-fired capacities that the company wants to decommission by 2026, when its total capacity should reach 3.09 GW, from 3.24 GW currently. In March 2020, EC Oltenia launched a tender seeking consultants for four of these projects.
Earlier this week, Romanian Ministry of Energy has sent to the European Investment Bank (EIB) the first applications for financing from the budget of the Modernization Fund of several strategic projects in the energy sector.
The Ministry submitted nine project proposals for financing with a total investment cost of over 693 million euros, of which over 492 million euros were requested from the Modernization Fund. One project is related to electricity transmission system operator Transelectrica – the new 400 kV overhead transmission line. Constanța Nord – Medgidia Sud worth some 23 million euros, while eight solar projects are related to coal-based electricity producer EC Oltenia, totaling over 670 million euros.
