en.Wedoany.com Reported - Greece's MORE has put into operation the Stâlpu 2 hybrid solar park in Buzău County, Romania. The project was developed by project company Solar Energy Production, located northeast of Bucharest, in which MORE holds an 80% stake, with the remaining shares controlled by Alive Renewable Holding Limited, part of the Premier Energy Group. The plant has an installed capacity of 63 MW and is equipped with a battery energy storage system of 10 MW/21 MWh. Currently in the trial operation phase, it is expected to deliver 76 GWh of electricity to the grid annually.

This project is the first renewable energy facility developed by MORE – Motor Oil Renewable Energy outside of Greece, and also the company's first hybrid power plant. MORE is a subsidiary of the refining company Motor Oil Hellas, which is also involved in green hydrogen projects and carbon capture and storage.

According to the company, the electricity generated by this new hybrid power plant can meet the needs of 32,000 households. Data shows that the facility can prevent more than 26,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere annually, an estimate based on the greenhouse gas emissions from producing the same amount of electricity using fossil fuels.

Stâlpu 1, also located in Buzău County, entered trial production a month ago. This plant includes a 48 MW solar farm and a battery energy storage system (BESS) with an operating power of 8 MW and a capacity of 16 MWh. Alive Renewable holds a 90% stake in its operator, Development Power Solar Energy, with MORE holding 10%. The Romanian Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) granted construction permits for these two hybrid power plants a year ago, allowing the projects to commence construction.

MORE and Alive Renewable acquired the two project companies in 2024 for €15.9 million. According to a report from last May, the joint investment was valued at 418.2 million Romanian lei, close to €83 million at the exchange rate at the time. These two projects are eligible for grants of up to 112.3 million Romanian lei from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP, Romanian acronym PNRR), a mechanism that is part of the EU's Recovery and Resilience Facility.