Introduction

Over the past several months, we have focused several articles on Romania’s potential to attract significant investments in renewable energy because of the nation’s unique geographic attributes. In our November article - "Creating Renewable Energy in Romania" - and our December article - "New Incentives to Invest in Renewable Energy" – (see The Romanian Digest™ Archive at www.hr.ro), we discussed two important and rather specific aspects of the process of attracting and developing renewable energy projects in Romania. In addition to the authorizations and licenses required from the National Regulatory Authority in the Energy Field (“ANRE”), and the incentives awarded to investors, interested companies face many other issues in developing a renewable energy project in Romania. For example, they must secure the land upon which to develop a wind plant or hydro power plant, and obtain other governmental authorizations in addition to the ones issued by ANRE. This article focuses upon the major steps to be taken by a potential investor who intends to develop a wind or hydro power plant in Romania.

Securing the land

Types of agreements/rights achieved

The first thing that a potential investor must consider is how best to secure the land on which the wind or hydro power plant will be located, together with all of the equipment necessary for its functioning and for the connection to the national electricity grid. If the land is owned by private owners, the investing company may conclude agreements directly with those owners, which are usually sale-purchase agreements to acquire the ownership right over the land, or superficies agreements in which they acquire the right to use the land in order to erect a certain building on it, as for instance, the turbine, and the ownership right over such building. In case of wind p