Romania's Offshore Wind Market Takes Shape: The 11.5 GW Black Sea Concession Pipeline

Quick answer

Romania’s proposal identifies:

• 3.1 GW in Phase 1, intended for near-term fixed-foundation development
• 2.4 GW in Phase 2, comprising technically attractive areas affected by major military constraints
• 6 GW in Phase 3, consisting of a long-term deep-water development zone that may require floating technology.

The total proposed pipeline is approximately 11.5 GW across 3,848 km².

Phase 1 is intended to support Romania’s national objective of installing approximately 3 GW of offshore wind by 2035. The full 11.5 GW list is therefore broader than the first contemplated concession round and should be understood as a strategic, multi-decade pipeline.

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Source documents

Readers may review the three underlying documents directly:

1. Draft Government Decision approving the offshore wind concession areas

2. Substantiation note to the draft Government Decision

3. Technical annex containing the proposed areas, coordinates, capacities and constraints

The proposal was published through the Ministry of Energy’s decision-making transparency section on 22 July 2026.

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1. Why the proposal matters

Romania adopted Law no. 121/2024 on offshore wind energy in May 2024. The law established the primary legislative framework for the concession, exploration, construction and operation of offshore wind projects in the Romanian Black Sea.

Among other matters, the law requires the Government, acting upon the proposal of the Ministry of Energy, to approve the list of concessionable offshore wind perimeters based on a specialist study. The areas must be defined through topogeodetic coordinates and assessed against the Romanian maritime spatial plan, environmental considerations and national-security restrictions.

The draft Government Decision now seeks to implement that requirement.

The statutory deadline provided by Law no. 121/2024 for approving the list was 31 March 2025. The publication of the draft on 22 July 2026 therefore comes approximately 16 months after the original legislative deadline. This delay is relevant from an investor perspective because offshore wind development depends on a long chain of sequential and interdependent actions.

Nevertheless, the publication remains a major regulatory milestone. Without legally defined concession areas, the Ministry of Energy cannot progress meaningfully toward the competitive award of offshore wind rights.

2. The proposed 11.5 GW offshore wind pipeline

The technical annex identifies five proposed concession perimeters and one broader development zone.

The stated capacities are planning estimates. They should not be treated as guaranteed auction capacities or as the final installed capacity that will remain available after detailed site investigations, environmental assessments, defence clearances, petroleum coexistence arrangements and grid studies.

The annex also provides relative levelised cost of energy indicators. These are comparative indices rather than absolute EUR/MWh projections and should not be used as bankable cost estimates.

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3. Phase 1: Romania’s immediate 3.1 GW opportunity

Phase 1 contains three areas considered suitable for fixed-foundation offshore wind projects using currently available technologies.

The substantiation note links this 3.1 GW phase directly to Romania’s national objective of installing approximately 3 GW of offshore wind by 2035.

Perimeter 1: the anchor opportunity

Perimeter 1 accounts for approximately 61% of the entire Phase 1 capacity. Its successful development would therefore be critical to Romania’s ability to approach the 3 GW target by 2035.

The area is nevertheless affected by material coexistence issues. The annex identifies:

From a commercial perspective, Perimeter 1 offers scale and potentially greater flexibility to optimise turbine placement. However, its size does not eliminate the need for detailed petroleum, environmental, military and navigation agreements.

Perimeter 2: compact and relatively dense

Perimeter 2 combines relatively shallow water, a comparatively high nominal density and a manageable 600 MW project scale.

Its principal constraints include:

Because Perimeter 2 is considerably smaller than Perimeter 1, developers may have less internal flexibility to relocate turbines and cables away from sensitive zones.

Perimeter 3: a more challenging Phase 1 proposition

On the published information, Perimeter 3 appears to have the least favourable technical-cost profile of the Phase 1 areas.

It has:

This does not mean that Perimeter 3 is unviable. It may, however, require different pricing assumptions, more selective consortium interest or differentiated auction treatment.

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4. Phase 2: potentially stronger economics, but major defence constraints

Phase 2 contains two areas with a combined capacity of approximately 2.4 GW.

The annex explains that the areas were not included in Phase 1 because of overlaps with military zones and military buffers that would need to be relocated or otherwise resolved before development.

Perimeter 4: the strongest technical profile in the package

Perimeter 4 has:

From a purely technical and cost-comparison perspective, it appears to be the strongest area in the entire package.

However:

This is an important market signal. The order in which Romanian offshore wind areas may be developed is not determined solely by wind resource or theoretical LCOE. National security, maritime use and institutional readiness are equally decisive.

Perimeter 5: scale, but extensive military and petroleum overlap

Perimeter 5 is the second-largest proposed project area after Perimeter 1.

The principal constraints are:

Perimeter 5 may become a valuable medium-term opportunity, but only after a credible institutional solution is reached concerning military use and offshore petroleum infrastructure.

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5. Phase 3: a 6 GW long-term strategic reserve

Development Zone 6

Development Zone 6 represents more than half of the total proposed 11.5 GW pipeline.

The area is fundamentally different from the five identified concession perimeters. It is described as a development zone, potentially containing future project areas, rather than as a clearly defined near-term project.

The annex indicates that:

The terminology creates a point that should be clarified in the final legal instrument. The operative Government Decision approves concessionable “perimeters,” while the annex refers to Zone 6 as a broader “development zone.”

It should therefore be made clear whether Zone 6 will itself be capable of immediate concession or whether future concession perimeters will be selected and separately approved from within it.

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6. How the Romanian offshore wind legal pathway is expected to work

The draft Government Decision is one component of a wider legal and regulatory framework.

In broad terms, the project-development pathway is expected to include the following stages.

Stage 1: approval of the concessionable areas

The Government adopts the list of concessionable offshore wind areas based on the Ministry of Energy’s proposal and the underlying specialist study.

This is the stage addressed by the current draft package.

Stage 2: preparation of the competitive concession procedure

The Ministry of Energy must prepare the detailed concession documentation, including:

These matters are not determined by the current draft.

Stage 3: bidder eligibility and Romanian presence

Law no. 121/2024 establishes eligibility conditions for participation in the competitive concession procedure.

A foreign legal entity must have a Romanian subsidiary in place by the date on which its bid is submitted. That Romanian entity must hold the rights and obligations resulting from the concession contract. Other requirements concern solvency, tax compliance, sanctions, criminal convictions, State-aid recovery decisions and the status of the bidder as an undertaking in difficulty.

For international developers, this means that Romanian corporate structuring will not be merely a post-award implementation matter. It will form part of bid preparation.

Stage 4: concession contract and exploration permit

Following the competitive award, the successful developer enters into a concession contract with the Ministry of Energy.

The Ministry subsequently issues the exploration permit to the concessionaire.

The exploration stage will be essential for confirming:

Stage 5: grid connection

ANRE has adopted a dedicated regulation governing the connection of offshore wind power plants to the electricity transmission grid through Order no. 92/2024. The regulation establishes the stages and procedures applicable to offshore users seeking connection to the transmission system.

The existence of a regulatory procedure is positive. However, the current perimeter documents do not identify:

These remain among the most important bankability questions.

Stage 6: ANRE establishment authorisation

The current ANRE licensing framework requires an offshore wind establishment-authorisation applicant to provide, among other documents:

This confirms that the concession and exploration stage must produce a sufficiently mature technical project before the ANRE authorisation process can be completed.

Stage 7: development approval

Law no. 121/2024 defines the development approval as an act with effects equivalent to a building permit. It covers offshore works within the concession area and the relevant onshore works up to the connection with the electricity transmission system.

The establishment authorisation and development approval give the concessionaire the legal basis required to construct the offshore wind power plant and the relevant connection works.

Stage 8: construction, testing and commercial operation

The project must subsequently complete:

The current proposal does not alter or replace these downstream requirements.

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7. Grid capacity may become the decisive constraint

The absence of a project-specific transmission strategy is the most significant missing element in the current package.

Romania’s offshore wind projects will connect into the south-eastern part of the national electricity system, particularly the Dobrogea region.

Romania’s maritime spatial plan already recognises that Dobrogea combines:

It also identifies grid connection costs, transmission capacity and the distance between offshore projects and the coast as major challenges.

This creates several strategic questions.

8. The future revenue model will determine investment appetite

Law no. 121/2024 contemplates the development of a support scheme for offshore wind. The Ministry of Energy is responsible for defining its objectives, award mechanism, duration and financing source, subject to State-aid rules.

The current perimeter package does not establish that scheme.

Romania does, however, have relevant experience with competitive two-way Contracts for Difference for onshore wind and solar photovoltaic projects. The first two Romanian CfD auctions awarded a combined 4.2 GW of supported renewable capacity.

This experience may assist Romania in designing an offshore mechanism, but an offshore auction will require different risk treatment.

Offshore wind projects typically have:

The eventual revenue-support framework will need to address issues such as:

Source status and connected advice

The analysis is based on the Ministry of Energy's draft Government Decision, substantiation note and technical annex published on 22 July 2026. These are consultation documents and may change before adoption. The final text should be checked through the Ministry of Energy's transparency section and the Official Gazette.

For project strategy, Romanian renewable energy legal services should be coordinated with grid and permitting advice, energy M&A and project finance and technical development and bankability review. An investor entering a consortium should also test the project assumptions through technical due diligence.

This article is general information, based on the documents available on 27 July 2026, and is not legal or technical advice for a particular Black Sea area.