Central and Eastern Europe is no longer a single trade. Each market in the region now moves on its own clock, with its own grid story, its own auction history, and its own set of barriers to bankability. Hungary has been a residential solar phenomenon, Poland is scaling Baltic offshore wind, Czechia has re-entered the gigawatt club after a decade out, and Bulgaria has run hard on PV plus storage but left wind behind.
If you are sitting at a CEE investment committee in May 2026, the most important question is not whether to allocate to the region. It is where to put the next euro to work.
Our answer, on the data: Romania first.
Here is why.
Romania set a quiet record in 2025
The Romanian Photovoltaic Industry Association reports that the country installed 2.2 GW of solar in 2025, the third consecutive year of growth, taking total installed solar capacity past 7 GW. The Romanian Photovoltaic Industry Association forecasts another 2.5 GW will be added in 2026.
The IEA’s Global Energy Review 2026 highlighted Romania as one of the European countries that set new annual solar PV records in 2025. Pv magazine called Romania “one of the few standout European PV markets in 2025,” noting growth in a year when EU-wide installations declined.
That is the headline. Now look underneath it.
Why Romania stands out in CEE right now
1. The most successful CfD framework in the region
Across three Contracts for Difference rounds, Romania has now awarded approximately 4.5 GW of wind and solar capacity, comfortably above the 3.5 GW target set in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. The mechanism, supported by the EU Modernisation Fund and the EBRD, has delivered some of the most competitive renewable prices in the EU. Solar bids in the second round (August 2025) cleared as low as €35 per MWh, with a weighted average around €40 per MWh. Onshore wind landed at an average of €73.89 per MWh.
For comparison, no other CEE country has run a CfD programme of equivalent depth, transparency, or scale across both wind and solar. The result: long-term revenue visibility for 15 years, replicable for new entrants, and now bankable across multiple rounds.
2. A grid being rebuilt, not just patched
Romania’s transmission system operator, Transelectrica, has lifted its 2026 investment programme by more than 30%, with a particular focus on integrating renewables in Dobrogea and Banat. Around 5,000 MW of additional integration capacity is targeted in those regions by 2027. New 400 kV corridors are being built to evacuate Black Sea power inland and to interconnect Romania with Moldova and Ukraine through ENTSO-E.
Layered on top: from 1 January 2026, Romania has switched to an auction-based system for grid connection capacity for projects of 5 MW or more. ANRE has terminated stale, speculative connection applications. Bankability now hinges on project maturity, financial guarantees, and execution readiness. The era of paper pipelines is over, and that is a feature, not a bug, for serious investors.
3. A genuinely emerging Black Sea offshore wind market
Romania is the only Black Sea EU state with a dedicated offshore wind law in force (Law 121/2024). The World Bank estimates technical potential of up to 76 GW. The Government has set a 3 GW operational target by 2035, with the first concession tenders being shaped for 2027. Onshore solar and storage developers benefit from the same coastal grid build out that will eventually carry offshore wind power.
Bulgaria and Turkey are advancing offshore frameworks but trail Romania. Poland’s offshore programme is in the Baltic, a fundamentally different competitive set with established Western European players already on the ground.
4. The PPA market has crossed the credibility threshold
Romania entered the top 10 European PPA markets in 2024 and has continued to scale through 2025 and into 2026. The Romanian Photovoltaic Industry Association tracks 29 PPAs signed to date (15 solar, 12 wind, two hybrid). Recent landmark deals include:
- DRI (DTEK’s EU renewables arm) and OMV Petrom signed Romania’s largest physical solar PPA, covering approximately 100 GWh per year over 8.5 years from January 2026.
- OMV Petrom and Saint Gobain signed an 800 GWh, five-year deal starting in 2026.
- Rezolv Energy has signed multiple virtual PPAs from Romania, including a 10-year contract with Bekaert covering 100 GWh per year from a 461 MW Buzău wind project.
- R.Power inked its first long-term PPA covering 357 GWh of solar from 2026 to 2036.
Disclosed PPA prices in Romania currently sit in the €65 to €85 per MWh range, well above CfD clearing levels and above several Western European benchmarks for similar tenors.
5. The capital is already on the ground
The list of large institutional and strategic players actively building Romanian renewables platforms is long and notably international:
- PPC (Greece’s largest utility) announced a €24 billion investment plan to 2030, with 21% allocated to Romania, second only to Greece itself.
- Rezolv Energy (Actis-backed): three of its four Southeast European projects are in Romania, including what is set to become Europe’s largest solar park (Vifor / Buzău).
- Eurowind Energy: 7.5 GW pipeline, multiple operational sites, first hybrid wind plus solar plus BESS in Constanța.
- Renalfa Power Clusters (RGreen Invest): scaling a hybrid cluster in Arad to 568 MW solar and over 3.6 GWh of storage.
- Enery: closed €460 million in green project financing for a 761 MWp solar plus 1 GWh+ BESS hybrid.
- Scatec and Defic Globe: backed by EIB (€34 million), EBRD, and BCR within a €121 million package.
- EBRD announced €192 million for a 531 MW solar portfolio.
- OX2, Engie, European Energy, R.Power, Greenvolt (KKR), DRI, Econergy, and Çalık Renewables are all active.
This is not a thesis investor list. It is a delivery investor list.
6. Storage is finally moving from pilots to assets
Romania’s battery storage market expanded from around 10 MW (20 MWh) to 137 MW (269 MWh) in a single year through legislative reform that removed fiscal barriers and unlocked Modernisation Fund support. The 2 GW battery storage target by 2030 is now backed by EU funding, project finance from UniCredit, ING, and others, and a hybridisation trend that has made co-located BESS the new bankability standard.
7. Strategic depth that goes beyond electricity
Romania is an EU and NATO member, sits on the Black Sea, holds Europe’s largest natural gas reserves outside Norway, will start producing offshore gas through Neptun Deep from 2027, is expanding its Cernavodă nuclear plant with Units 3 and 4, and sits at the centre of the Three Seas Initiative connectivity push. Energy investors do not just get a renewables play. They get exposure to a rising regional energy node.
Where Romania compares head-to-head with other CEE markets
A pragmatic snapshot for May 2026:
Romania vs Poland. Poland has more installed renewables overall and a deep prosumer market, but its CfD-equivalent auctions face stronger competition, land costs are higher, and grid congestion is acute. Romania has a clearer runway for new utility-scale capacity and a more open Black Sea offshore opportunity than Poland’s increasingly contested Baltic.
Romania vs Hungary. Hungary delivered remarkable solar growth (a record 42% of June 2025 generation), but the market is heavily residential and saturated at the household level. The Iberdrola exit (158 MW of wind sold to Premier Energy and iG TECH Capital for €171 million in early 2026) is a signal that strategic capital rotation is now flowing out of Hungary, not in. Romania is on the opposite side of that flow.
Romania vs Bulgaria. Bulgaria has built an impressive solar and BESS story, but it has not commissioned new wind in over a decade. Its market is smaller, its CfD framework less developed, and its offshore wind law trails Romania’s. For diversified renewables exposure with wind, solar, storage, and offshore optionality, Romania is the deeper play.
Romania vs Czechia. Czechia has re-entered the gigawatt-scale solar market and pulled forward its coal phase-out to 2033, but its renewables potential is structurally smaller than Romania’s, and its grid is already heavily nuclear-anchored. Romania offers more headroom and more subsidy and PPA optionality.
The honest risks
Romania’s case is not flawless, and serious investors should weight the following:
- Grid bottleneck. Industry estimates put the development pipeline at 66 to 70 GW, of which industry panellists at Black Sea Energy Week 2026 expect only around 10% to actually be built. The new auction system tightens the funnel, which is positive in the long run but punishing for unprepared projects.
- AIB membership pending. Until Romania joins the Association of Issuing Bodies, cross-border Guarantee of Origin transfers remain limited, dampening the cross-border PPA market.
- Permitting and labour. Permitting delays and a shortage of skilled workers, particularly for the 2,000 to 3,000 MW of solar starting construction in 2026, are real execution risks.
- Past intervention precedent. Romania’s price cap during the 2022 to 2023 energy crisis was one of the EU’s most aggressive. Future regulatory shocks cannot be ruled out.
- Offshore wind timing. First Black Sea turbines are unlikely before 2032. Investors expecting near-term offshore yield should look elsewhere.
These are not deal breakers. They are the price of entering a market still moving from emerging to mature, and they are precisely why early, well-positioned capital is being rewarded.
Momentum Energy’s View
At Momentum Energy, our reading is direct: in May 2026, Romania is the highest-conviction CEE market for solar, hybrid solar plus storage, and renewables-adjacent infrastructure capital.
Our four-point thesis:
- The framework is proven, not promised. Three CfD rounds, sub-€40 per MWh solar clearing prices, deep EU funding access, a new auction-based grid system, and 4.5 GW already contracted. Few CEE markets can show this combination.
- Capital concentration confirms the call. PPC, Actis, KKR, EBRD, EIB, IFC, RGreen Invest, UniCredit, ING, and a long list of strategic developers are all writing real cheques. Capital flow is the most reliable signal in any emerging market thesis, and in Romania it is unambiguous.
- Hybrid is the only credible 2026 onward configuration. Pure merchant solar is increasingly difficult to finance under negative price and curtailment conditions. Co-located BESS is now the baseline. The earlier you adopt this configuration in Romania, the better your capture price and bankability.
- The window narrows as offshore tenders approach. When the first Black Sea offshore concession auctions go live, adjacent solar and storage assets will revalue. Investors entering before that catalyst will own the upside.
For investors comparing Poland, Hungary, Czechia, Bulgaria, and Romania for new CEE capital allocation, the data points to Romania as the right first move, particularly for hybrid solar plus storage at scale, for coastal grid plays linked to the offshore wind story, and for PPA-backed merchant-plus structures.
If you are evaluating a Romanian opportunity and want a perspective on grid strategy, CfD versus PPA structuring, or how to position before the offshore tender, our team is happy to talk.
