Bucharest, May 15 / Agerpres / - Romania's arid land could be an excellent source for biomass projects, and our goal is that, by 2016, to implement 350 biomass installations that can create over 10,000 jobs throughout the country, said in a press conference, Ilias Papageorgiadis, President of the Romanian Association of Biomass and Bio-gas ARBIO. "The category of unproductive land, the so-called fallow land, can be an excellent source for biomass projects across the country, while it cannot anyway be valued as agricultural land. We expect the Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) to publish its proposal for the fixed tariff for biomass investments below 2 MW and also to clarify the situation for projects beyond this capacity, through the existing aid scheme. If there will be any surprise, we expect the biomass investments to attract the attention of hundreds of investors and Romania to develop a lot in this direction", the ARBIO official pointed out. Papageorgiadis noted that, over the next three years, inauguration of 350 biomass installations is pursued, with capacities below and above 0.5 MW. "Our goal is to reach 300 installations below 0.5 MW and 50 of over 0.5 MW by the end of 2016. This would mean more than 10,000 jobs across the country, 200-300 in each county, hundreds of millions euros in foreign direct investment, plus many more positive effects locally. It is only up to us, as society, to attain or surpass this goal", Papageorgiadis said. ARBIO (http://www.arbio.ro/en/#all) was established in 2012 and brings together the entire bio industry in Romania in the field of renewable energy, including: biomass, bio-gas, energy from waste, anaerobic digestion, bio-diesel, bio-ethanol, recycling and related industry areas. The organization is a member of the European Association for Biomass (AEBIOM) and of the European Bio-gas Association (EBA). Currently, ARBIO has submitted two projects ("Waste to Be" and "Bio Cooks") under the European programme "Intelligent Energy Europe", being ready to work with the authorities and companies in order to become more active and to expand throughout Romania. According to a Government Emergency Ordinance, approved on April 23, grasslands can be withdrawn from agricultural use only with the approval of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.