Romania and the path to renewables: solar panels
Romania is undergoing a significant expansion in solar power within its broader energy transition framework, bolstered by European funding and legal reforms.
Romania is undergoing a significant expansion in solar power within its broader energy transition framework, bolstered by European funding and legal reforms.
With an average of 1,900 to 2,400 annual sunlight hours, Romania has significant natural potential for solar PV development. Yet, the country has not set ambitious targets for renewable energy sources,
Romania''s revised NECP draft outlines modest growth targets for solar power capacity but this below the country''s solar potential and lacks specificity and concrete measures for achievement.
Romania''s distributed generation segment has grown rapidly, surpassing 2.5 GW, with most capacity deployed in the past three years. Prosumers are an integral part of our sector,
Romania was a major player in the solar power industry, installing in the 1970s and 1980s around 800,000 m (8,600,000 sq ft) of low quality solar collectors that placed the country third worldwide in the total surface area of PV cells. One of the most important solar projects was the installation of a 30 kW solar panel on the roof of the Politehnica University of Bucharest that is capable of producing 60 MWh of electricity per year.
Romania has been a focal point of renewable energy discussions in Eastern Europe, with ambitious goals set for its solar power sector. The year 2025 was marked as a potential milestone for
Romania''s prosumer solar market continued its rapid growth toward the end of 2025, with nearly 290,000 registered prosumers and installed capacity surpassing 3.3 GW, according to the
The expansion of solar power in Romania has generated approximately 62,000 direct jobs in the solar sector as of end-2024, primarily in installation, maintenance, and related operations, driven by the
During the COP28 climate summit in Dubai in December 2023, Romanian president Klaus Iohannis pledged to increase his country''s PV generation capacity to more than 8 GW by
Romania is located in an area with a good solar potential of 210 sunny days per year and with an annual solar energy flux between 1,000 kWh /m 2 /year and 1,300 kWh/m 2 /year.
Romania is set for a significant expansion in the photovoltaic sector in 2025, driven by funding programs such as Casa Verde and RePower EU, the liberalization of energy prices, and a
PDF version includes complete article with source references. Suitable for printing and offline reading.