Moldova mandates returnable financial guarantee for future connection permits

Renewable energy developers in Moldova must now provide financial guarantees when applying for grid connection permits. The guarantees are refundable if projects become operational within agreed time frames.

The Moldovan government has approved legislative changes to its electricity law to unblock the renewable energy market.

The amendment, approved by the country’s cabinet of ministers last week, will require developers of renewable energy plants greater than 200 kW in size to submit financial guarantees when requesting permits to connect to the electricity grid. If projects are operational within agreed time frames, the guarantees will be returned to the developers.

If the plants fail to become operational within the agreed time frames, the developers will face fees of 50% to 70% of the financial guarantees.

The National Energy Regulatory Agencies will set the values of the guarantees. The system operators will use funds from the fees to modernize electricity networks nationwide, the government said on its website.

Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean said the projects will unblock connection permits for renewables.

“For this year, we can release a large capacity, which was blocked, including for speculative purposes by certain actors on the energy market,” Recean said.

He added that a transition period for grants has been set until June 30, 2025, exempting those who renounce permits with speculative intentions from the fine.

Developers holding permits for solar plants up to 1 MW or wind plants up to 4 MW will also be exempt from submitting the financial guarantees.

The latest legislative changes follow a new approval process for power plants above 20 MW, introduced in 2024 to streamline and make the construction and commissioning documentation process more efficient and transparent.

Earlier this month, Moldova also approved new regulations for calculating renewable energy consumption, known as RED II.

The legislation mandates a mechanism to calculate energy consumption from renewable sources and determine its share in gross final energy consumption, effective until the end of 2050. The National Center for Sustainable Energy (CNED) will carry out the calculation.

Moldova’s Ministry of Energy launched the country’s first renewables auction in August 2024, aiming to procure 60 MW of solar and 105 MW of wind. The application deadline is at the end of March 2025.

Figures released by CNED earlier this year showed that Moldova deployed 344 MW of solar in the first nine months of 2024, which is nearly double the total added in 2023.