OMV Petrom, Renovatio Switch On 130 MW of Solar Parks in Romania

• OMV Petrom said on Oct. 28 that three solar parks it co-owns with Renovatio, about 130 MW gross, entered commercial operation in Romania.
• The parks at Țăndărei, Bucovăț and Căzănești cost about €78 million, a third of it PNRR grants, and should make 0.2 TWh a year.
• OMV Petrom now has about 200 MW of operating renewables, 1,200 MW under construction and a target of over 2,500 MW by 2030.

OMV Petrom and Renovatio have brought three Romanian solar parks, about 130 MW gross, into commercial operation, OMV Petrom said on Oct. 28.

The parks are at Țăndărei, Bucovăț and Căzănești, and they now feed the national grid. Renovatio's company timeline lists them at 45 MW, 62 MW and 22 MW, completed between August and October. Development and grid connection cost about €78 million ($87 million), OMV Petrom said in a statement. Roughly €26 million of that came as grants under Romania's National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR).

The company expects 0.2 TWh a year from the three sites, or the annual use of more than 110,000 Romanian households. Romania connected 1,331 MW of new solar capacity from January to Aug. 20, grid operator Transelectrica said.

The three parks in numbers

• 130 MW of gross capacity across three sites, of which about 65 MW is net to OMV Petrom under its 50% stake.
• 62 MW at Bucovăț, 45 MW at Țăndărei and 22 MW at Căzănești, according to Renovatio.
• €600,000 ($668,000) of investment per MW of gross capacity, grid connection included (list.solar calculation).
• 33% of the €78 million budget comes from PNRR grants (list.solar calculation).
• About 18% capacity factor implied by 0.2 TWh a year from 130 MW; approximate, because both inputs are rounded (list.solar calculation).
• 53% of the 2,514 MW of generation and storage connected in Romania from January to Aug. 20, 2026, was solar, based on Transelectrica data (list.solar calculation).

OMV Petrom, which also runs the 860-MW Brazi gas-fired power plant, agreed to buy half of the three projects in June 2024. Its renewable assets, partnerships included, now total about 200 MW. The group's first wholly owned large solar park, the 89-MWp Ișalnița plant in Dolj County, was still under construction in September. That month OMV Petrom hired Simtel Team to build a 20-MW / 40-MWh battery there.

"A further 1,200 MW is under construction, and we target over 2,500 MW of operational capacity by 2030," said Franck Neel, who oversees gas and power on OMV Petrom's executive board.

In August, Transelectrica expected about 1,000 MW more of solar and wind plants to connect by the end of 2026. OMV Petrom said the Ișalnița battery should take about seven months to build from the contract signing.