Moldova Awards 165 MW Green Energy Capacity in Debut National Auction

• Moldova’s first large-scale renewables tender allocates 165 MW of wind and solar to 11 projects, boosting energy security and signaling a maturing green market.

The Republic of Moldova has entered the utility-scale renewables game with unexpected flair. After years of relying on imports to keep the lights on, the government’s first competitive auction wrapped up last week by handing out 165 MW of new green generation—in equal parts confidence boost and coming-of-age moment for the local market.

On paper, the numbers tell a tidy story: 105 MW of wind across five projects and 60 MW of solar spread over six sites, all fully subscribed. Yet the real headline lies in the mix of winners. Home-grown developer Lumina Noastră walked away with the lion’s share—two wind farms totaling 65 MW plus a portfolio of five solar arrays that together add up to 54 MW. Its projects dot the map from the gusty ridges of Ștefan Vodă to the open fields of Telenești, hedging weather risk and easing grid strain.

Equally interesting are the newcomers. Windnova, an international entrant, clinched a single 27.5 MW turbine cluster while posting the auction’s lowest wind tariff. Navitas Energy scooped two smaller wind lots, and KKK Invest secured a 5.7 MW solar plant, proof that fresh capital sees a future here. All 11 schemes secured 15-year power purchase agreements at prices that slipped under the regulator’s ceiling—about 1.50 MDL/kWh for wind and 1.67 MDL/kWh for solar—giving lenders the predictability they crave.

The Ministry of Energy expects roughly €190 million to flow into the country as the projects move from paper to steel and silicon. Construction alone should create more than 400 jobs, while the finished plants could cover close to 7.5 percent of annual electricity demand. That, in turn, nudges Moldova toward its pledge to source 30 percent of power from renewables by the end of the decade.

Developers now face an ambitious schedule: sign PPAs within three months, nail down funding by spring 2026, and deliver electrons to the grid no later than mid-2028. If they meet those milestones, the nation’s fledgling auction framework will have passed its toughest test—and set the stage for a follow-up tender already penciled in for October 2025, featuring another 173 MW of wind plus 22 MW of battery storage.

For a country long stuck on the sidelines of Europe’s clean-energy race, Moldova’s opening play looks surprisingly polished. The next few years will reveal whether investors—and turbines—keep spinning in its favor.