Romania has spent the last two years quietly assembling the building blocks of a new offshore wind industry in the Black Sea. The World Bank pegs the country’s technical potential at up to 76 GW. The Government has set a target of 3 GW operational by 2035. The first concession tenders are being shaped for 2027.
None of this delivers a single megawatt of solar. So why should solar investors care?
Because the offshore wind story is one of the loudest signals in the Romanian renewables market right now. It is reshaping grid investment, attracting billions in capital, and rewriting the rules of bankability for every PV and storage project on the Black Sea coast. Investors who treat offshore as a separate, far-off asset class are misreading the moment.
Here is what is actually happening, and what to watch.
A snapshot of where Romania stands today
Law 121/2024 on Offshore Wind Energy entered into force in June 2024, giving Romania, for the first time, the legal architecture needed to develop wind farms in its Exclusive Economic Zone. The World Bank, working with the European Commission, then published a roadmap outlining how Romania could install up to 7 GW of offshore wind by 2035 under a high-growth scenario, anchored on the relatively shallow coastal waters that suit fixed-bottom foundations.
In May 2025, the Ministry of Energy issued a call for expressions of interest to prepare the specialised study that will define the first concession perimeters, each with at least 800 MW of potential. The dedicated offshore CfD scheme is set to be ready by 1 January 2027.
The honest assessment: this is a long cycle market. Several statutory deadlines in Law 121/2024 have slipped, and most analysts now expect the first turbines in the Romanian Black Sea no earlier than 2032. But the pipeline is forming, capital is circling, and onshore infrastructure is being designed today around tomorrow’s offshore output.
That is the part that matters for solar.
Five reasons solar investors should pay attention
1. Dobrogea and the coast are about to be re-engineered
The Black Sea coast and the historic wind hub of Dobrogea sit at the heart of Romania’s renewables map. They also host the most congested patch of the national grid. Transelectrica’s 2026 investment programme is up more than 30% on the previous year, and the operator has stated that Dobrogea and Banat will see roughly 5,000 MW of additional integration capacity by 2027.
Much of that grid build out is being justified, in part, by future offshore wind volumes and the new 400 kV corridors that will evacuate Black Sea power inland. Solar developers who position projects in or near Dobrogea, around the offshore landing zones, or along these new corridors, are effectively riding on infrastructure being upgraded for someone else’s use case.
2. Romania’s grid connection rules just changed completely
From 1 January 2026, Romania has moved to an auction-based system for grid connection capacity for any project of 5 MW or more. Transelectrica publishes available capacity by region annually, developers submit bids, and only mature, finance-ready projects win allocations. ANRE has terminated stale connection applications without permits.
This is the single most important regulatory shift for solar in Romania. The era of speculative grid bookings is over. Bankability now hinges on project maturity, financial guarantees, and execution readiness. Pure-play merchant solar without storage will struggle. Hybrid PV plus BESS configurations with credible delivery plans will win.
3. Hybridisation is no longer optional
The numbers tell the story. In Romania’s second CfD auction (August 2025), solar PV bids cleared as low as €35 per MWh, with an average of around €40 per MWh, while onshore wind landed at an average of €73.89 per MWh. Increasingly frequent negative daytime prices and growing curtailment risk mean that pure merchant solar is rapidly losing its appeal to lenders.
The market response is unmistakable:
- Eurowind Energy, with a 7.5 GW Romanian pipeline, has launched its first hybrid wind plus solar plus BESS project in Constanța county.
- Renalfa Power Clusters is combining a 365 MWp solar plant with 400 MW of standalone BESS in Arad, with plans to scale the cluster to 568 MW of solar and over 3.6 GWh of storage.
- Enery has closed a €460 million green project financing for a 761 MWp solar and 1 GWh+ BESS hybrid that would be among the largest of its kind in Europe.
- Engie Romania is colocating BESS with both new solar and existing wind assets.
The future Romanian renewables asset is hybrid. Offshore wind, when it arrives, will plug into the same flexibility logic.
4. Capital is voting with its feet
Romania has become a magnet for institutional and strategic renewables capital. Recent landmarks include:
- The European Investment Bank has committed €34 million within a €121 million package, alongside EBRD and BCR, to back Scatec and Defic Globe’s solar portfolio.
- The EBRD has announced a €192 million investment in a 531 MW Romanian solar portfolio.
- KKR-owned Greenvolt, OX2, Engie, European Energy, Rezolv Energy, and PPC are all expanding Romanian platforms.
- Romania has now contracted approximately 4.5 GW of CfD-backed wind and solar across three auction rounds, comfortably above the 3.5 GW set out in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.
Foreign direct investment in Romanian renewables is no longer a thesis. It is a fact. The opening of an offshore wind market widens the funnel and signals to additional global capital that Romania is a serious, EU-aligned destination.
5. The first offshore tender will reset valuations
When the offshore concession tenders go live, they will trigger a re-rating of adjacent solar and storage assets in Romania. Land near landing zones, projects with secured grid capacity, and developers with operational track records will command a premium. Investors who position now, before the offshore market opens, will sit on appreciating optionality.
What to watch in the next 12 to 24 months
A short, focused list of signals every solar investor in Romania should track:
- The technical study delineating the first offshore wind perimeters, and the timing of its publication.
- The offshore CfD scheme, expected to be operational by 1 January 2027.
- Annual Transelectrica capacity allocations under the new auction framework, particularly for Dobrogea and Constanța.
- The closing cycle of the third onshore CfD auction, including bank guarantee submissions in January 2026.
- National Recovery and Resilience Plan funding milestones tied to offshore (notably Milestone 116).
- Battery storage progress towards Romania’s 2 GW by 2030 target.
- Final approval of the Maritime Spatial Plan, still outstanding.
Why Romania, on the data
Looking at fundamentals rather than narrative, Romania’s case is grounded:
- Resource depth. Up to 76 GW of offshore wind potential, very strong onshore wind in Dobrogea, and high solar irradiation in the south. Few EU countries combine all three at this scale.
- Demonstrated CfD execution. Three rounds completed, around 4.5 GW awarded, prices among the lowest in the EU for new solar (sub-€40 per MWh). The mechanism is bankable and operational.
- EU financing access. Romania benefits from the Modernisation Fund, REPowerEU, the PNRR/RRF, and EIB, EBRD, and IFC programmes. Offshore wind is tied directly to NRRP funding.
- Coal phase-out and rising demand. Coal exits by 2032. Romania’s NECP envisions renewables reaching well above half of electricity production by 2030. The buy-side keeps growing.
- Strategic position. EU and NATO member, on the Black Sea, connecting ENTSO-E to Moldova and Ukraine via new 400 kV interconnectors. Romania is becoming a regional energy node, not just a national market.
- First mover legal framework. Romania is the only Black Sea EU state with a dedicated offshore wind law in force. Bulgaria and Turkey are advancing, but Romania is in front.
The picture is not perfect. Permitting bottlenecks, missed offshore deadlines, and continued grid constraints are real challenges that reward patience and execution discipline. But the directional trend is unambiguous: Romania is moving from emerging to mature renewables jurisdiction, and the offshore wind story is the leading indicator of that transition.
Momentum Energy’s View
At Momentum Energy, we read Romania’s offshore wind opening as a structural positive for the country’s solar investment thesis, not a competing distraction. The same coastal grid that will eventually carry Black Sea wind power is being upgraded today. The same investor pipeline studying offshore CfDs is also writing cheques for hybrid solar plus storage assets along the Dobrogea axis.
Our reading is straightforward:
- Hybrid is the new bankability standard. Pure merchant solar is increasingly difficult to finance in Romania. Co-located BESS is no longer a nice to have. It is the baseline for a credible 2026 onward project.
- Grid strategy beats land strategy. Under the new auction-based connection rules, the developers who win are those who understand which Transelectrica zones are about to free up, who hold financial guarantees ready, and who can prove execution maturity.
- The offshore tender is a catalyst, not a substitute. Investors who treat offshore wind as a 2032-and-beyond story miss the point. The capital, infrastructure, and policy attention it is pulling into Romania today is what is making solar more bankable now.
- Romania is, in our view, the most attractive solar plus storage market in the Black Sea region. Stronger legal frameworks than Bulgaria, deeper EU financing access than Turkey, more mature CfD execution than Moldova, and a pipeline of foreign developers already on the ground.
For solar investors looking at Central and Southeast Europe, the question is no longer whether to enter Romania. It is how quickly, and with what configuration. The window for early positioning, before offshore concession tenders compress timelines and revalue adjacent assets, is open right now.
If you are evaluating a Romanian solar or hybrid opportunity and want a perspective on grid strategy, CfD positioning, or coastal asset siting, our team is happy to talk.
Sources
- World Bank, “Roadmap for Romania: Building a new Offshore Wind Industry in the Black Sea,” September 2024. https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2024/09/27/roadmap-for-romania-building-a-new-offshore-wind-industry-in-the-black-sea
- Riviera Maritime Media, “Romania could have up to 7 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2035.” https://www.rivieramm.com/news-content-hub/news-content-hub/romania-could-have-up-to-7-gw-of-offshore-wind-capacity-by-2035-82454
- CEENERGYNEWS, “Romania’s offshore wind energy potential and the reality,” February 2026. https://ceenergynews.com/renewables/romania-offshore-wind-black-sea/
- Strategic Energy Europe, “Romanian Government pushes for the delimitation of offshore areas to achieve its 3 GW target by 2035,” May 2025. https://strategicenergy.eu/romanian-offshore-wind-energy/
- Energy Industry Review, “Offshore Wind Power: North Sea, the World’s Largest Clean Energy Centre,” February 2026. https://energyindustryreview.com/renewables/offshore-wind-power-north-sea-the-worlds-largest-clean-energy-centre/
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- Energy Week Black Sea 2026. https://bsenergyweek.com/
