Greening Romania The Cluster Way

Global environmental changes are forcing a fast transition from the self-destructive fossil-fuel based way of life to a sustainable bio-based one, and in this race, the development of well-thought bio-based industry clusters might prove to be an appropriate instrument. Generally speaking, industrial clusters are cooperating groups of specialised enterprises and other supporting actors (such as suppliers of specialized inputs and providers of specialized infrastructure, or other institutions). It was shown in the literature that clusters work as instruments for promoting economic growth. The strategy for European Union‘greening’ through a transition to bioeconomy asks, among others, for a decreased energy dependence and for a diversification of supply sources, especially for renewable energy sources (RES). A target of 20% share of renewable energy in final energy consumption was set as a target for EU. Each State Member was allowed to set its own target, higher or lower than 20%, and had to develop a detailed roadmap aimed at reaching their 2020 target. For the case of ‘greening’ Romania, biomas might prove one of the most important RES for fueling the development of a successful bio-based cluster-type industry. This paper presents, for Romania, a brief introduction of the legal framework for the bio-based industry, followed by some information about the RES biomass market barriers, and finally, an overview of the bio-based Romanian clusters.