Romania’s Ministry of Energy’s has awarded 432MW of solar PV capacity across 11 projects in its first Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme.
The CfD ended up more than three times oversubscribed, with over 1.6GW of solar PV bids for 500MW available capacity. Despite that, the auction closed with just 432MW allocated. The CfD was initially expected to be launched in 2023.
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In comparison, a little bit over 1GW of wind capacity was awarded for the 1.2GW offered.
The weighted average price of electricity production for solar PV was €51/MWh (US$53.5/MWh), while wind averaged €65/MWh. Solar PV saw a maximum price offer of €54.18/MWh and a minimum bidding price of €45.05/MWh.
A second CfD auction is to be held in 2025 and will seek 2GW of solar PV capacity. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Romania to help the country implement the second CfD auction next year.
In the agreement between the EBRD and Romania, a support scheme and related auctions for energy storage systems will also be implemented. Last month, the Ministry of Energy awarded grants to nearly 800MWh of battery energy storage systems through the Recovery and Resilience facility, as covered by our sister-site Energy-storage.news.
Sebastian Burduja, Romania’s Minister of Energy, said: ” We had a significant number of participants, and the resulting prices are very competitive, 20-30% below maximum prices. All our expectations regarding the success of this first auction were exceeded, which confirms the confidence that investors have in Romania and in the future of our energy system.”
The funding for both rounds of the CfD auctions comes from Europe’s Modernisation Fund which seeks to help ten member states – including Romania – modernise their energy systems. The budget for the two rounds is estimated at €3 billion (US$3.3 billion).
Polish independent power producer R.Power was among the companies awarded in Romania’s first round of CfD. Five projects were awarded a 15-year contract. These five solar PV projects have a combined capacity of 85MW, with the largest having a capacity of 55MW. All projects are set to be operational by 2026.
Moreover, the company recently started construction on a 23MWp solar PV portfolio in Romania.
