Romania has become one of Europe’s leading markets for large-scale solar projects, with local companies increasingly delivering complex renewable energy investments using domestic expertise, according to Christian Leonte, CEO of WALDEVAR Holding.
“Romania has become home of the largest PV projects in Europe and there are worldwide also not so many to keep pace with us. I am happy that not only the size of these projects but also the competencies that has been shown [have proven] that Romania it’s home to know-how so we can do everything with local resources,” Christian Leonte said at the “International Approach London” conference, organized by Energynomics in London.
He added that WALDEVAR has experienced accelerated growth in recent years, both financially and operationally.
“We are constantly doubling our numbers, being revenue or profit or even in the number of the people that are employed and the competencies and resources. We’re right now at close to 2,000 people and the differentiator or the main advantage that we’re bringing to the market is that we’re not dependent on any subcontractors,” he stated.
Leonte pointed to a clear market transition from ambitious development pipelines to actual execution, as major investments require strong local EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) partners. According to him, this shift has enabled Romanian companies to scale up capabilities and prepare for expansion beyond national borders. In terms of market outlook, he offered updated figures on the renewable energy pipeline. Romania currently has around 70 GW of grid connection permits issued, but only 43 GW have signed grid connection contracts. Of these, approximately 23 GW have building permits, while roughly 11 GW are fully authorized.
Even with this progressive filtering at each permitting stage, Leonte estimates that around 10 GW of photovoltaic capacity will ultimately be built in the coming years, complemented by an additional 5-6 GW of energy storage. He also stated that there is a mounting pressure on costs and execution standards in the sector.
“There is a big pressure right now on the cost and on the level of execution, on the quality of execution and I’m always trying to repeat and to bring into understanding of all the parties involved that the projects are not being done at a time of the COD”, Christian Leonte insisted. Their lives just start at COD, and “we speak about 30 years of life for these projects which are massive investments”. All parties involved want to see the return on investment and efficiency. “This is where we as EPC companies are doing our best to make such projects successful.”
Looking ahead, he identified predictability as the main structural challenge for the sector, although he noted that regulatory clarity appears to be improving. Another key issue, he argued, is the need to increase electricity consumption by attracting large industrial consumers, such as data centers, to Romania in order to balance new generation capacity.
Leonte also stressed the importance of reducing dependency on foreign suppliers, particularly from China, in the context of energy security concerns. In this regard, WALDEVAR is developing what he describes as Europe’s only floating photovoltaic systems factory, aiming to strengthen local manufacturing capacity and strategic autonomy in renewable technologies.
The conference “International Approach London” was organized by Energynomics, with the support of the Embassy of Romania to the UK and the British Embassy in Romania, together with our partners: AJ BRAND, Electrica, Monsson, MyEnerji, Nofar Energy, Waldevar.