Romania: Windmills, Increasingly More in Dobrogea

Romania has decided to generate one fifth of its electricity using non-polluting sources in the following ten years, and the most consistent such source for this ambitious design is wind power, ACT Media news agency reports.

Specialists say the southeastern province of Dobrogea has a huge potential in terms of wind power and the conversion of sun power into thermal power.

Increasingly more investors have lately come to Dobrogea armed with projects for creating plains of wind turbines.

Officials of German, French, Dutch and Greek companies are looking for lands on the Black Sea coast, in the Danube Delta and the steppes in northern Dobrogea to carry out their projects.

Some dikes on the Black Sea coast have been leased out for the location of wind turbines.

Hundreds of hectares of common land have also been leased out in rural areas for wind farms or wind fields.Italy's Enel, who has recently acquired Electrica Dobrogea electricity utility, announced it would invest 27 million euros in wind generators and is now seeking to take land under lease in Dobrogea to place their wind power modules called wind farms.

Although such installations are not polluting and the power generated by them is environmentally friendly, there are some green activists voicing strong opposition to such investments.

Five non-governmental organisations, including the Society of Romanian Ornithologists (SOR), have submitted a protest to President Basescu, Prime Minister Tariceanu and Environmental Minister Sulfina Barbu, urging them to step in immediately to put a halt to the wind farms invading Dobrogea.

Bird protectionists argue that the lands leased out for the wind farms are well-known habitats of over 372 bird species under ecological protection, and wintering grounds for over 1 million birds.Botanists are also opposing the projects, arguing that the steppes of Dobrogea are home to 400 endangered plant species, most of which are on the grazing lands leased out by town halls.

The Commission for Natural Monuments of the Romanian Academy has joined the protesters, submitting a note to local authorities in the area urging them to halt the investment in wind power generation until a national development strategy for electricity generation using wind power is drawn up.


<a href="http://www.actmedia.ro" target="_blank">Source: ACT Media News Agency</a>