On Sunday, January 19, 20.59% of Moldova’s total electricity consumption was covered by locally produced renewable sources, marking a record for the cold season. These data reflect the contribution of renewable power plants connected to the Moldelectrica grid, the electricity transmission system operator.

 

The statistics do not include the production of small power plants used for self-consumption, which operate on the basis of net metering and billing mechanisms. At the end of last year, these small power plants, installed in households and private companies, had a total capacity of 145 MW and were connected to the distribution networks. Data on their production is collected monthly, which means that the actual production for January 19 is likely to be higher than reported, and full information will be available later.

 

The 20% record demonstrates the increased potential of green energy and the importance of investments in this sector.

 

“If renewable production were maintained for domestic consumption further, we could reach double this figure during the summer, especially once other capacities are to be put into operation,” said Carolina Novac, State Secretary at the Ministry of Energy.

 

At the end of 2024, the installed capacities of renewable power plants, including solar, wind, hydro and biogas, reached almost 580 MW, and the share of renewable energy in final electricity consumption last year was over 16%. The target is to increase the share of renewable energy to 30% of electricity consumption.

 

The government aims to add 165 MW of renewable capacity (60 MW of wind and 105 MW of photovoltaic capacity). To this end, the first tenders for large capacities were launched on October 31, 2024, and the winning developers will be announced and designated by Government Decision in June 2025. The tenders could attract investments in the sector of around 190 million euros.

 

This is a three-fold increase compared to 2022 and an 8-fold increase compared to 2020, due to state policies in the field. These include:

 

Amendments to the Land Code that do not require the procedure for changing the destination of agricultural land;

 

Increase from 20 MW to 120 MW for photovoltaic capacities at a fixed rate to business, encouraging especially local businesses

Income tax exemption for excess energy produced by prosumers on net billing

VAT exemption for construction, assembly and installation of photovoltaics

Customs tax exemption for modular components of photovoltaic capacities

Simplification of procedures for obtaining producer status by economic agents

Creation of energy communities

Preparation of the regulatory framework to allow a generation site different from the consumption site and the installation of photovoltaics by tenant associations, as well as allowing a double consumption site at a generation point, etc.

 

Additionally, the Government supported economic agents and farmers through access to grants from ODA, AIPA, as well as access to affordable and favorable credit instruments for SMEs via the 373 program.

 

We recall that in Moldova there are three support mechanisms for green energy producers, guaranteeing the purchase of surplus energy delivered to the network and thus helping them recover their investments:

 

- net billing, which replaced net metering from January 1, 2024, valid for small producers with installations intended for their own consumption;

 

- fixed tariff for 15 years - for parks and plants up to 4 MW of wind or biogas (without capacity limit);

 

- fixed price, also valid for 15 years, for parks and plants larger than 1 MW of photovoltaic or 4 MW of wind, capacities assigned through auctions.