One of Europe’s largest photovoltaic projects is being prepared in Romania

In western Romania, in Arad County near the Hungarian border, preparations are underway for the large-scale Dama Solar photovoltaic project, which, if completed, could become the largest solar park in Europe outside Türkiye. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has published project information regarding possible financing for the construction and operation of a solar power plant with a capacity of 1,238.9 MWp DC in the communes of Grăniceri and Pilu.

The project is being implemented through West Power Investments S.R.L., a Romanian special purpose vehicle controlled by Rezolv Energy. According to the EBRD, the plant is expected to support the green transformation of Romania’s energy system, increase the share of renewable generation, and deliver estimated annual CO₂ emissions reductions of around 619 thousand tonnes.

According to updated reports from sectoral media, the project capacity has been increased by more than 200 MW compared with previously announced parameters: while Dama Solar had earlier been presented as a 1,044 MW project, it is now expected to reach almost 1.24 GW DC, and in some reports up to 1.3 GW peak capacity. The future solar park will cover 1,064 hectares and will include ground-mounted photovoltaic panels, inverter stations, an internal medium-voltage grid, a 110/400 kV substation, and a 400 kV underground cable approximately 3.5–3.6 km long to connect the facility to the national power transmission system.

Importantly, Rezolv Energy had already appeared among the winners of Romania’s second Contracts for Difference (CfD) auction: in August 2025, the company reported that two successful bids covered 731.2 MW of capacity from the Dama Solar project. This indicates that the initiative is moving from the development stage toward a more advanced phase of financial and institutional preparation.

Rezolv Energy was established in 2022 with the support of Actis, an international sustainable infrastructure investor. In autumn 2025, Mubadala Investment Company and Actis announced the creation of a joint venture for the joint control of Rezolv Energy, thereby strengthening the platform’s financial base for the implementation of large-scale energy projects in Central and South-Eastern Europe.

Comment by the Institute of Danube Research 

Experts of the Institute note that the Dama Solar project demonstrates that Romania is moving from the stage of declarative support for green energy toward the implementation of ultra-large infrastructure facilities capable of reshaping not only the national but also the regional energy balance. In the broader context of the Danube-Black Sea region, this means a strengthening of Romania’s role as one of the key centers of the new energy architecture of South-Eastern Europe. The scale of the project indicates that competition for investments in generation, grids, and energy storage across the region will only intensify.

IDR Director Vitaliy Barvinenko separately emphasized that this case has a dual significance for Ukraine.

“First, it demonstrates how the combination of private capital, CfD mechanisms, and the participation of international financial institutions makes it possible to move large energy projects into the implementation phase quickly. Second, the development of such a powerful solar generation facility in neighboring Romania is gradually shaping a new configuration of the regional electricity market, where interstate integration, grid flexibility, and energy storage are becoming no less important than the expansion of installed capacity itself,” Vitaliy Barvinenko stressed.