Romania is set to surpass last year’s solar deployment record after installing around 1.5 GW of new solar capacity in the first five months of 2026, according to Irene Mihai, policy director of the Romanian Photovoltaic Industry Association (RPIA).

Speaking to pv magazine during the Smarter E event in Munich, Mihai said Romania added approximately 800 MW of utility-scale solar and a similar volume of prosumer installations between January and the start of June.

Further growth anticipated

Mihai expects annual deployments to continue increasing into 2027, supported by a sizeable pipeline of large-scale projects.

Among them is the Ogrezeni hybrid project, under development by Vienna-based independent power producer Enery. Mihai said the 760 MW solar project, to be tied to 1 GWh of battery energy storage system (BESS), is set to become the biggest solar park in Europe once commissioned, which is expected by the end of 2027.

Away from the Ogrezeni project, there are several other utility-scale projects ranging from 200 MW and above that are currently under construction and moving towards completion.

Mihai attributed the continued growth primarily to regulatory improvements that have streamlined renewable energy development over recent years.

“I would say first and foremost the overall framework for developing renewables,” she told pv magazine. “The capacities that were permitted over the past year for two, three years are now being deployed.”

Mihai added that Romania’s market is increasingly maturing beyond reliance on subsidies and public funding.

“We had the strong support from the EU funds that drove the initial installations,” she said. “However, now we see a more merchant-based approach.”

Romania’s transmission system operator is also preparing to move from a first-come, first-served grid connection model to an auction-based allocation system. Mihai said the market is watching closely to see how the reforms impact future development, although projects already under construction will not be affected.

PPA market gaining momentum

Mihai told pv magazine developers are increasingly securing power purchase agreements (PPAs) as projects become commercially viable without direct support mechanisms.

“We see that a lot of the projects sign or have signed PPAs, or are looking forward to signing PPAs,” she said.

Mihai said Romania’s planned accession to the Association of Issuing Bodies (AIB), which will make guarantees of origin certificates tradeable outside the country, could provide another boost to the country’s growing PPA market.

Romania’s PPA market only reopened in 2021 following the removal of a long-standing ban. Mihai told pv magazine that since 2022, there have been close to 40 PPAs signed. Solar and wind account for a similar share of agreements, while hybrid projects are beginning to emerge, with market participants exploring how batteries could be integrated into future PPA structures.

Storage growth accelerates

Battery storage deployments are also accelerating across both the utility-scale and prosumer segments in Romania.

Mihai estimated that around 400 MW of utility-scale battery capacity have been installed since the beginning of the year, bringing the national total to approximately 1 GW and around 2 GWh. Existing solar assets are also increasingly being hybridized with battery systems, alongside a large pipeline of standalone battery projects.

Battery adoption is also increasing dramatically on the residential side. “At the beginning of January, almost no prosumers had batteries, because the focus was on deploying solar” Mihai said. “And now, a third of them, so around 100,000 people and businesses, have already deployed batteries.”

RPIA’s discussions with Romania’s transmission system operator and regulatory authorities indicate there are around 800 MW of residential and C&I batteries installed in the country.

Mihai explained that growth in home batteries to date has happened independently from subsidy schemes, although the government is planning to replace its rebate scheme for residential solar with support for storage installations.

“It seems that the the rebate scheme is going to cover batteries for existing solar installations, whether they were financed through [former solar rebate scheme] Casa Verde or financed through personal funds,” Mihai told pv magazine. “But what I can tell you is that a lot of prosumers are actually not counting on these funds to deploy batteries, they are already doing it. So it’s clear that there is great interest for batteries.”