Who is the most powerful man in wind energy sector?

One name comes up constantly when it comes to wind farm development in Romania, one of the hottest sectors for investments at present on the local market. Whether we are talking about transactions or about hundreds of millions of euros’ worth of projects involving “wind mills”, the constant across several of these investments is the Muntmark family. Companies that are market leaders in their sectors, such as is the case of the Czechs at CEZ, Petrom, the largest company on the Romanian market, and ButanGas Romania bought projects developed by Emanuel Muntmark, a 57 year-old Romanian, born in Voluntari, Ilfov county, with Swedish citizenship. A simple search for the name Muntmark in the Trade Register yields 43 results, i.e. 43 firms where one member of this family holds a stake.

“Haven’t you met Muntmark? He is very easy to reach! Buy a wind farm and you’ll meet him,” say market sources.

The businessman was not available for comment by the time this issue was ready for print, his discretion being perhaps the best-known thing about him. After selling a 600-MW farm, the capacity of a reactor of nuclear power station in Cernavodă to Czech-based CEZ, he then struck a deal with Petrom for a 45-MW investment, and has recently reached an agreement with ButanGas for a 25-MW project. Transelectrica data from the beginning of August show one thing: companies controlled by Muntmark have projects with a capacity of 220 MW that have contracts to connect to the grid, i.e. projects ready to be built.