<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/feb/11/is-romania-blueprint-economic-growth-low-emissions>
"Once the frozen fields outside Bucharest have thawed, workers will assemble
the largest solar farm in Europe: one million photovoltaic panels backed by
batteries to power homes after sunset. But the 760MW project in southern
Romania will not hold the title for long. In the north-west, authorities have
approved a bigger plant that will boast a capacity of 1GW.
The sun-lit plots of silicon and glass will join a slew of projects that have
rendered the Romanian economy unrecognisable from its polluted state when
communism ended. They include an onshore windfarm near the Black Sea that for
several years was Europe’s biggest, a nuclear power plant by the Danube whose
lifetime is being extended by 30 years, and a fast-spreading patchwork of solar
panels topping homes and shops across the country.
“The trend is irreversible,” said Liviu Gavrilă, vice-president of the Romanian
Wind Energy Association and manager at Enery, which is building the solar farm.
“But we need to play it smart.”
Few would consider Romania a climate leader but on one metric it has found the
holy grail of the energy transition. The country has decoupled economic growth
from pollution faster than anywhere else in Europe, and perhaps even the world.
Its net greenhouse gas emissions intensity fell by 88% between 1990 and 2023,
the latest data shows, meaning each dollar’s worth of economic activity heats
the planet almost 10 times less than it did before. Emissions have plunged by
75%.
How did Romania shatter the historical link between the economy and the
climate? And can its breakneck transformation keep up the pace?"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
