In March 2026, the Chinese Energy Storage Corps won a series of heavyweight orders in Romania: Siyuan Electric's cumulative signed energy storage capacity exceeded 4.5GWh within half a month, followed closely by Sunac Power's signing of a 1GWh supply agreement. At the same time, the EU has approved a special subsidy of 150 million euros for energy storage, with over 300000 distributed photovoltaic users and a significantly simplified approval process. This Southeast European country is rapidly becoming a new focus of Europe's energy transition, opening a golden window for Chinese new energy investors that cannot be missed.

The huge gap between large photovoltaics and small energy storage

Romania has developed rapidly in the field of renewable energy in recent years. As of early 2026, the number of distributed photovoltaic users in the country has skyrocketed from only 303 in 2019 to nearly 300000, with a growth rate of about 650 times between 2019 and 2024, making it one of the fastest-growing markets in Europe. More noteworthy is that Romania has the largest installed capacity of single household photovoltaics in Europe, with an average system capacity of about 12kW, almost twice the EU average level (6.2kW), indicating that local users have high consumption capacity and acceptance of photovoltaics.

However, a key structural weakness is highlighted here: as of 2024, only about 1.2% of the systems are equipped with energy storage, far below the EU average of about 11%. This pattern of "large photovoltaics, small energy storage" has created a huge market space for energy storage investors. Romanian Energy Minister Bogdan Ivan bluntly stated, "Romania has several gigawatts of renewable energy installed, but the output depends on the weather. Without energy storage, electricity generated during the day can only be sold at a low price, and at night it has to be imported at a high price

150 million euros in subsidies and 3 billion euros in CfD

In March 2026, the European Commission officially approved a 150 million euro national aid plan for Romania to support the construction of at least 2174MWh of independent battery energy storage projects. The subsidy details are very attractive: the subsidy for each MWh of energy storage capacity does not exceed 69000 euros, and the maximum subsidy for a single project is 15 million euros, which can cover up to 100% of the qualified costs. The project bidding will start in the second quarter of 2026, and the applicant is not limited to any country. Chinese enterprises are fully qualified to participate.

In addition to special subsidies for energy storage, Romania has also introduced a Contract for Difference (CfD) mechanism to provide a 15 year stable income guarantee for renewable energy projects. The total budget of the plan is as high as 3 billion euros, and the total bidding amount is planned to be 5GW (solar and onshore wind power), of which the price limit for photovoltaic is about 73 to 78 euros/MWh, and the price limit for onshore wind power is about 80 to 82 euros/MWh. At the same time, the policy environment continues to optimize: the threshold for foreign investment review notification has been raised from 2 million euros to 5 million euros, the review fee has been reduced from 10000 euros to 5000 euros, the review time limit has been shortened from 60 days to 45 days, and some projects can complete fire approval in as little as 5 working days.

Layout matrix of Siyuan Electric and Sunshine Power Supply

On March 19th, Siyuan Electric signed a cooperation agreement with Alive Capital, a well-known energy developer in Romania, to deploy up to 2.5GWh of battery energy storage capacity in the next four years. This is the second gigawatt level large order won by Siyuan Electric in March 2026. Combined with the over 2GWh energy storage cooperation framework reached with Winners Holding Investments and Finas Group on March 11th, Siyuan Electric has accumulated over 4.5GWh of contracted energy storage capacity in Romania, setting a new milestone for its presence in the Southeast European market.

On March 31st, Sunac announced an agreement with ENEVO Group, a Romanian energy solutions provider, to supply 1GWh battery energy storage systems for multiple local projects. The project will be delivered in two phases: the first phase of 440MWh is scheduled to be delivered before December 2026, and the second phase will add 560MWh. All systems use the Sunac PowerTitan 2.0 liquid cooled energy storage system. Two companies - equipment supply and project development - have formed a multidimensional layout matrix in Romania, providing a replicable successful model for Chinese enterprises to go global in the future. For Chinese investors who are able to make quick decisions and plan ahead, 2026 is the key node to seize the opportunity of this round of new energy in Central and Eastern Europe. Editor/Yang Beihua