French group Filasa to invest in Romania's wind farms

BUCHAREST, November 17 (Xinhua) -- The French group Filasa International on Thursday announced its plan to invest 780 million euros (1.05 billion U.S. dollars) in the construction of wind farms in Romania's northeastern county of Suceava.

"We chose to invest in the development of wind farms in Romania because we are sure of the potential of this European country in renewable energy field," said general manager of Filasa Bernard Esquirol, adding that the investment would be realized in the next two years.

The total installed capacity of the 11 wind farms will be 516 MW/h, said Esquirol.

The entire wind farm energy complex is called the Wind Parks of Northeast Suceava and all projects are developed in co-association with the respective local communities.

Romania is one of European countries with the greatest potential for growth in the wind farms field. The government estimates the potential of wind energy generated in Romania at 14,000 MW, the largest in South-East Europe.

According to experts, at the end of 2012, in Romania, more than 7.5 percent of electricity demand could be covered by wind energy. Each megawatt of wind power requires an investment of between 1.5 to 1.6 million euros (2.02 million dollars to 2.16 million dollars), so the total investments in Romania might reach five billion euros (6.75 billion dollars) by 2013.