Sebastian Burduja, the Minister of Energy, emphasized the importance of these investments within the strategy of transforming Romania into a regional energy hub.

"Not a few have questioned the ability of the Ministry of Energy to put to work the €16 billion from the Modernization Fund. Here, in just a few months, we launched in December 2023 the call for public institutions to cover the consumption of electricity from renewable sources. These projects are in full evaluation process. In March, we will also launch these two calls, with support of over €800 million: support for production and self-consumption from solar, wind, and hydro energy production. All these investments mean jobs, competitiveness for the Romanian private sector, and lower energy bills for all Romanians, in the long term. We will continue this effort at a sustained pace because I assumed from the beginning of my mandate the acceleration of all investment programs and the transformation of Romania into an energy hub for the entire region. In the next period, we expect from the potential beneficiaries any suggestions for improving the financing guidelines, to be able to launch in March a new successful competition for Romania", said Sebastian Burduja, Minister of Energy.

The two calls for projects will be open for 90 days starting from March 1, with a total budget of €815 million. The financial support will be granted in the form of a grant, within the limit of the state aid value of €20 million per beneficiary.

One of the calls encourages the production of green energy for self-consumption, with a minimum of 70% of the energy produced intended for consumption. The implementation period of the selected projects is 3 years from the signing of the financing contract, but no later than December 31, 2029.

The budget allocated by type of technology for the self-consumption project is distributed as follows:

• Wind energy: €30 million, with a maximum value of state aid of €700,000 /MW installed.
• Hydropower: €25 million, with a maximum value of state aid of €1.805 million /MW installed.
• Solar energy (under 1 MW): €170 million, with a maximum value of state aid of €1 million/MW installed.
• Solar energy (over 1 MW): €190 million, with a maximum value of state aid of €500,000/MW installed.

The second call, dedicated to investments in new capacities to produce electricity from renewable sources, has a budget distribution as follows:

• Wind power: €100 million, with a maximum value of state aid of €700,000/MW installed.
• Hydropower: €100 million, with a maximum value of state aid of €1.805 million/MW installed.
• Solar energy: €200 million, with a maximum value of state aid of €500,000/MW installed.

Since the calls for projects are competitive, the selection criterion will be the price in euro/MW.