Romania aims to become first country at Black Sea to have offshore wind legislation

Romania aims to become the first country bordering the Black Sea to have legislation in the offshore wind sector, said National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) President George-Sergiu Niculescu, at the Global Wind Offshore Regulators Forum in the US.He said that by the end of the year the draft law could be submitted to Parliament for adoption, in order to create the necessary legal framework for the development of offshore wind energy investments in the Black Sea.According to an ANRE press release sent on Tuesday, an official ANRE delegation led by George-Sergiu Niculescu paid a working visit to the United States of America in the period October 24-26, 2023. The invitation came from the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), through the International Technical Assistance Program, and represents the continuation of the dialogue started during the first working visit of July 5-16, 2023."This is the first time Romania has been invited to participate in the Global Wind Offshore Regulators Forum, an event that brought together countries such as Australia, Canada, UK, Ireland, Italy, USA, Denmark and that created the optimal framework for our country to benefit from an exchange of information on regulatory updates in the energy sector," the press release said.The latest developments and possible challenges in the offshore wind sector from a regulatory perspective were presented, as the US supports Romania's efforts to build a solid foundation in the area of renewable energy, particularly offshore wind."Romania aims to become the first country bordering the Black Sea to have offshore wind legislation. Our country is a partner that has all the chances and meets all the conditions to become one of the most important and predictable players on the energy market and a regional development model," said the Romanian representative at this forum, George Niculescu.The ANRE official pointed out that by the end of the year, Romania intends to submit to Parliament the draft law on offshore wind energy exploitation, in order to create the legal framework for the development of offshore wind energy investments in the Black Sea.During the forum, the President of ANRE also held discussions with Liz Klein, Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. In 2022, several US federal structures including BOEM (Bureau of Ocean Energy Management) of the Department of Interior, BSEE (Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement) and CLDP (Commercial Law Development Program) began active collaboration with their counterparts in Romania and offered their perspective and expertise on the development of regulations for the offshore wind sector and the licensing process.During the second part of his visit to the US, George Niculescu also had a series of bilateral meetings. Discussions with Geoff Pyatt, Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources, focused on regional challenges in the geopolitical context and the stage of the offshore wind project.There were also discussions at the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission with Commissioner James Danly, followed by a meeting at Department of Energy headquarters with Kathryne Huff, Assistant Secretary of the Office of Nuclear Energy. Also present with George Niculescu were Andrei Muraru, Romania's Ambassador to the US, and Dan Dragan, Secretary of State with the Ministry of Energy. The topics discussed were the expansion of nuclear capacity in our region, the state of implementation of the CANDU 3 and 4 project at the Cernavoda NPP, as well as the Small Nuclear Reactors (SMR) project.