The potential of the Romanian renewable energy sources is synthetically presented in Table 14 according to the “National Strategy for Renewable Energy Sources Utilisation”.
Table 14: Energy potential of the Romanian renewable energy sources
| Renewable energy source |
Annual energy potential |
Economic energy equivalent (103 toe) |
Application |
| Solar energy - heat - photovoltaic |
60x106 GJ 1,200 GWh |
1,433 103,2 |
Heat Electricity |
| Wind energy |
23,000 GWh |
1,978 |
Electricity |
| Hydro energy, of which, under 10 MW |
40,000 GWh 6,000 GWh |
516 |
Electricity |
| Biomass |
318x106 GJ |
7,597 |
Heat |
| Geothermal energy |
7x106 GJ |
167 |
Heat |
The energy share of the solar-thermal systems in supplying the necessary amount of heat and hot water for domestic utilisation in Romania has been estimated to amount to about 1,434x103toe (60PJ/year). These systems could ensure approximately 50% of the hot water for domestic utilisation or 15% of the heat for current heating.
The potential that could be exploited for producing electricity by means of photovoltaic systems is of about 1,200 GWh/year.
Considering the preliminary evaluations in the Black Sea shore area, including the offshore part, the wind energy potential that could be developed on short and medium term may be of about 2,000 MW, with an average electricity production of about 4,500 GWh/year.
In Romania the hydropower potential technically developable of the main rivers amounts to about 36 TWh/year, out of which:
- 23 - 25 TWh/year economically developable in great hydropower developments and
- around 6 TWh/year in small hydropower developments (<10 MW).
The geothermal energy reserve that could be currently utilised in Romania is of about 167x103toe (7,000x106GJ/year). The energy delivered is of about 30.171x103toe (1,326x106GJ/year) with an annual average utilisation level of 22,3%.
