Canadian renewables developer and asset owner Grasshopper Energy has signed an agreement that could support the development of up to 1GW of solar in Romania by 2030. The deal with entrepreneur Stefan Sturdza covers the development, construction and operation of solar projects in the country and is said to require investments of around USD 1 billion. Canada-headquartered Grasshopper Energy said the partnership represents the first stage of its goal in helping Romania reach its renewables targets. "Grasshopper is honoured to play a role in providing Romania with the latest clean energy infrastructure innovation and to support Romania and Europe in combating climate change," CEO Azeem Qureshi said quoted by Pv-tech.org. Having reached 1.4GW of installed solar at the end of 2020, Romania is looking to have 5.1GW of deployed solar by 2030 as part of efforts to generate 30.7% of its energy needs from renewable sources by the end of the decade. Recent months have seen R.Power enter Romania's solar market with plans for a 100MW PV plant, while developers Econergy and Nofar Energy have acquired a 155MW ready-to-build park that they said will be the country's largest solar installation to date.