OMV Petrom, a subsidiary of Austrian oil company OMV, has agreed to acquire a solar portfolio of 710MW in Romania from Danish developer Jantzen Renewables.

Financial terms of the transaction were not divulged.

Helios 1 is a large project consisting of several smaller solar plants with a shared grid connection.

The project is one of south-eastern Europe's most significant photovoltaic projects.

It has already secured permission to be connected to Romania's national electricity transmission network and is now seeking final building permit approvals.

The deal is expected to close in Q2 2024, when the projects reach the "ready-to-build" stage. They will begin commercial operations in 2026.

The cluster will set up its own primary transformer station linked to the 400kV overhead line.

The project will be built in Teleorman County. The selected sites offer a strong yield in terms of solar power.

The plants will generate 23,900 gigawatt-hours of clean energy and will have an operational period of 25 years, meeting the needs of 280,000 Romanian households annually.

OMV Petrom executive board member responsible for gas and power activity Franck Neel stated: “This purchase supports the achievement of OMV Petrom's strategic objective of having an installed renewables capacity of at least 1GW by 2030, including through partnerships.

“In addition, it allows us to adequately respond to the ever-increasing demand for green energy, contributing at the same time to the strengthening of Romania's security of supply and energy resilience.”

Jantzen Renewables co-founder and CEO Christian Jantzen stated: “The Helios 1 cluster is a great leap forward and further helps pave the way for a greener future for Romania.”