"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."
"The sun-lit plots of silicone 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."
Romania is undergoing a rapid energy transformation driven by large-scale solar projects, expanded wind capacity and extended nuclear operations. New plants include a 760MW solar farm near Bucharest, an approved 1GW plant in the north-west, an onshore windfarm by the Black Sea and a Danube nuclear plant whose lifetime is extended by 30 years. Widespread rooftop solar and battery storage support after-dark supply. Economic restructuring after communism collapsed heavy industry and fossil-fuel use, enabling a dramatic fall in emissions. Net greenhouse gas emissions intensity fell 88% between 1990 and 2023 and total emissions dropped by 75%.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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