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Energy Community Insights: Romania
Tour of Central & Eastern Europe: 4th stop with Romania's Energy Communities
The Life COMET project aims to transform the community energy landscape in Central and Eastern Europe through assessment, experience sharing, and coalition building. Our series of blog posts “Energy Community Insights: A Tour of Central & Eastern Europe” summarizes national assessments and action plans for enhancing energy community maturity* in Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovenia.
This fourth blog post explores the current landscape of energy communities in Romania, highlighting the key challenges faced, and offering policy recommendations to foster their growth and ensure long-term sustainability.
Current State of maturity of Energy Communities in Romania
Romania has made initial strides toward integrating Energy Communities into its legal framework, particularly with the transposition of the European Union Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) into national legislation. However, while the law grants rights to produce, consume, store, and sell renewable energy, the regulatory framework remains incomplete. Detailed procedural guidance is missing, making implementation difficult.
The development of Energy Communities is still in its early stages. Out of 21 identified projects, only two are operational, while ten are in advanced conceptual phases, and the rest remain in early planning. There is a noticeable lack of engagement from public authorities, as half of the initiatives are purely private.
Several barriers hinder the development of energy communities in Romania:
- Regulatory Gaps: While the legislative foundation exists, the lack of secondary legislation creates a knowledge gap among stakeholders about the establishment and operation of energy communities and prevents their effective implementation.
- Financing Constraints: Access to funding remains a major hurdle, with limited options and significant barriers in obtaining financing for feasibility studies. Moreover, banks do not see energy communities as potential beneficiaries due to the lack of guarantees. In ensuring these guarantees, the state could step in offering support.
- Limited Public Awareness and Stakeholder Engagement: Although enthusiasm for energy communities exists, advocacy activities for their development on the national level remains weak, and key stakeholders such as public authorities and energy suppliers lack comprehensive information.
- Absence of National and Local Strategies: Romania aims for a renewable energy share of 36.2% by 2030, primarily through solar and wind energy. While several policies or measures mention community energy initiatives, the Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan (PNIESC) lacks explicit provisions for energy communities. The absence of detailed criteria in existing laws hampers effective implementation, leading to uncertainty about their role in Romania’s renewable energy transition.
Necessary steps to enable the potential of energy communities
To overcome these challenges and create an enabling environment for energy communities, Romania must implement the following key actions:
Regulatory Adjustments
- Develop and adopt secondary legislation that clarifies energy-sharing procedures and community energy project regulations.
- Streamline administrative processes for homeowners’ associations to establish and participate in energy communities.
- Ensure that energy communities have a clear role in national and regional energy policies.
- Simplifying administrative procedures, as many energy communities struggle with complex regulations and unclear procedures. One-Stop-Shops can centralize legal, financial, and technical guidance, helping communities navigate permits, grid connections, and compliance requirements.
Financial and Business Model Development
- Improve access to funds and incentives tailored for energy communities, especially to support the financing of feasibility studies.
- Include energy communities as eligible participants in state funding programs.
- Develop and support sustainable business models that allow communities to thrive within the energy market.
Stakeholder Engagement and Public Awareness
- Enhance engagement between policymakers and energy community representatives to create a more participatory policy-making and lasting process.
- Strengthen public awareness through educational campaigns and centralized knowledge-sharing platforms.
Despite regulatory and financial obstacles, Romania has the potential to develop a thriving community energy sector. However, sustained commitment from policymakers, public institutions, and stakeholders is necessary to ensure progress. By addressing legislative gaps, enhancing financial support, and fostering stakeholder collaboration, Romania can make energy communities a key component in its transition toward a more sustainable and more democratic energy system.
To sustain the development of energy communities in Romania, the Coalition of Community Energy was recently founded in order to support, promote and scale up energy communities by uniting stakeholders, advocating for policy changes, and providing technical and financial guidance. Stay tuned for our next blog post about Romania, where we will explore the activities of this emerging coalition working to support energy community initiatives.
* To measure maturity, a tailor-made assessment tool was created, incorporating weighted criteria and scoring countries' performance across 11 areas: political will, transposition process, local, regional and national strategies, regulatory framework, business models, financing, collective self-consumption, networking, knowledge, awareness and stakeholder engagement. Read the full assessment for all 7 countries studied here.
