Romania to get Europe's largest onshore wind farm

CEZ, the largest electricity producer in central Europe, has bought into a Continental Wind Partners project near the Black Sea port of Constanta. The first phase will be ready next year, when 139 turbines - each with a 2.5 megawatt capacity - will be installed. The second phase will be completed in 2010 when more than 200 turbines with a total capacity of 600 MW will come into operation. Europe's current largest wind farm, which has a generating capacity of 208 MW, is in Guadalajara, Spain.The project is the first large wind-power project to be realised in Romania and will represent almost 30% of the renewable market in the country when fully operational. The deal brings CEZ, which already is among Europe's top ten electricity companies in terms of production capacity and turnover, closer to its target of 1,000MW capacity through wind power by 2020. The company has been keen to reduce its reliance on nuclear and coal power and has so far no wind power plants in the Czech Republic. The project will also contribute to the EU renewables target of 20% of all energy consumption by 2020.