Le Monde: the Romanian seaside, the new El Dorado for eolian energy 

For certain regions of the Romanian seaside, where poverty is installed, the only certainty is the wind, which big energy companies like CEZ transformed it into a blessing by installing, nearby Fantanele village, the biggest terrestrial eolian energy in Europe, the French publication Le Monde reads in a material dedicated to the development of eolian energy in South East Romania. The wind became a blesing because locals who offered their fields nearby Fantanele receive up to 3,000 euro/year, the newspaper reads. The sum is a gold mine for those living in the countryside.

The project put forward by CEZ set up the first stage scheduled for this year: 115 windmills of the 139 initially planned are installed and ready to be connected to the electrical network. The second stage needs to end by 2012 and sees the installation of another 101 windmills in the nearby village, in Cogealac. Overall, the 240 windmills will provide an energy of 600 MW, the equivalent of the nuclear power plant in Cernavoda.

CEZ company officials declared for the publication that the company plans to produce 10% of the renewable energy in Romania. Romana committed to the EU to produce 20% of its renewable energy to respect the EU objectives set for 2020.

About 100 local people work for the project together with about 400 that arrived from other countries. The local population have a new network of roads and bridges and will be able to have access to water.

This success story attracted the attention of other investors, the Spanish group Iberdrola, number one worldwide that opened an office in Bucharest and declared is ready to invest about 2 billion euro in a eolian system nearby the Black Sea.