DTEK brings first wind and solar projects online in Romania

Ukrainian energy company DTEK Group (DTEK) has announced 'first power' at its renewable energy projects in Romania, the company's debut projects outside Ukraine.

The company is developing one wind and one solar project which are the first in an EU portfolio that will span Italy, Poland, Romania and Croatia. They are being developed by DTEK’s wholly-owned subsidiary DTEK Renewables International (DRI), based in the Netherlands.

DTEK is already the largest producer of renewable energy in Ukraine, with 1.1GW of installed capacity. During COP28 last December, the company signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Vestas to expand its Tyligulska windfarm near Kherson – a €450 million ($489 million) investment that will create Eastern Europe’s largest windfarm.

The two projects in Romania are the first in DRI’s plans to reach 5GW of installed capacity within the EU by 2030. Together they involved a total investment of €150 million ($163 million).

• Project Ruginoasa is a 60MW windfarm with 10 Vestas V162-6.0 MW turbines in Lasi County, Romania. Building work began in March 2023, working with contractors Eximprod Engineering, Tractebel Engineering, and Electromontaj. The total investment is €107 million ($116 million).
• Project Glodeni is a 53MWp solar park in Mureș County, Romania. Like Ruginoasa, construction began in March 2023, with power accepted by Transelectrica on 5th January 2024. DRI partnered with specialist contractors and manufacturers including Ostenweg, Risen, Ideematec, Krone Solar, and Energobit. The total investment is €43 million ($46 million).

Together the two will produce approximately 225,000MWh of electricity annually – enough to supply more than 58,500 homes and reduce carbon emissions by 58,000 tonnes a year.

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Sebastian Burduja, the Romanian minister of energy, commented: “Romania has embarked on building an energy system that is green, affordable, and secure, demonstrating the country’s ambition in this sector, honouring our partnership with the European Union’s Green Deal, and reducing our CO2 emissions long-term. We are delighted to have such important investments and investors in Romania, and we underline once more our key message for all companies in the global energy sector: come on over, Romania is open for business.”

Maxim Timchenko, the CEO of DTEK added, “Ukrainians have made a clear choice that their future lies inside Europe, and DTEK’s expansion into the EU is living proof of that ambition. I am exceptionally proud of the teams at Glodeni and Ruginoasa in producing green energy for Romanian consumers. This moment marks a further step forward in the integration of Europe’s and Ukraine’s energy systems as Ukraine moves towards EU accession.”

Glodeni and Ruginoasa are two projects in a broader DTEK commitment to help decarbonise both the Ukrainian and European power systems and to fully integrate Ukraine’s energy system with the EU’s.

In March 2022, less than a month after russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukrainian engineers connected its grid to the European Union’s.

The move was an important milestone in Ukraine’s longer-term vision to become a supplier of green power to Europe.

Having developed the Tyligulska windfarm in Ukraine during the war and without foreign workers, DTEK plans to use the DRI projects as an opportunity to export Ukrainian skills to other European markets and generate employment. Equally, DRI’s expansion will allow Ukraine to draw on European expertise, and potentially to import green Romanian power into Ukraine.