Last month, Romanian independent electricity and natural gas supplier Restart Energy entered into a joint venture with the US-based Interlink Capital Strategies to develop 500 million dollars in renewable energy in Romania and neighboring countries, as well as to expand into the US market with an innovative blockchain electricity trading platform. Restart Energy acquired a 45 MW ready to build solar power plant project in Salaj County in northwest Romania and will invest some 30 million dollars in its development.
The Sarmasag solar project is the first in the company’s five-year strategy, which includes the development of 100 MW of renewable energy generation capacities each year. The power plant will have an annual electricity production of 55 million kWh, enough to supply some 30,000 households. At the same time, it will prevent the emission of 1.23 million tons of CO2 in the atmosphere during the 25-year operation period.
The investment for Romania will finance the acquisition and development plans of 500 MW of renewable energy projects by the end of 2025. Restart Energy’s plan is to acquire and develop 100 MW of solar, wind, biogas, biomass, and geothermal energy projects per year. Restart Energy’s projects will seek annual investments of around 100 million dollars. Interlink will act as a strategic advisor to arrange funding for these projects. The two companies decided to further strengthen their relationship by becoming partners for expanding the Restart Energy business into the US market by launching the Restart Energy Democracy (RED) Platform – an online energy trading platform based on blockchain technology that allows peer to peer transfers between energy producers and final consumers, launch of a fully digital energy business franchise and carbon credits system for renewable energy production and consumption. The RED Platform was launched in 2019, initially in Romania Restart Energy’s home market where it has the highest customer base of approximately 30,000 household customers and 5,000 corporate customers.
