Potential removal of the 50-hectare limit – a step forward for renewable projects in Romania
On March 25, 2025, a draft law amending and supplementing certain legislative acts was registered with the Romanian Senate under number B95/2025 (hereinafter referred to as “Legislative Proposal” or “Proposal“).
1. Background
According to the explanatory memorandum underpinning the Legislative Proposal, its main purpose is to „facilitate and accelerate the development of the necessary energy transition infrastructure for renewable energy generation and/or energy storage, together with the related technical infrastructure, by introducing derogations and procedural simplifications regarding the use of agricultural land, the authorization of construction works and compliance with the urban planning documentation in force.”
The Legislative Proposal aims to amend the following laws: (i) Land Law No. 18/1991 (“Law 18/1991”); (ii) Law No. 50/1991 regarding the authorization of construction works (“Law 50/1991”), and (iii) Law No. 350/2001 regarding territory development and urban planning (“Law 350/2001”).
2. Main proposed changes
We highlight below the main changes brought by the Proposal:
2.1. Removal of the 50-hectare limit currently applicable to renewable energy projects
Currently, according to Law 18/1991, renewable energy projects (consisting in electricity generation capacities from renewable sources such as solar, wind, biomass, bioliquids and biogas energy generation plants, electricity storage units, transformer stations or other similar systems) can be built on certain categories of agricultural land located in the extra muros area, subject to a limit of maximum 50 ha of land per investment objective. This possibility was specially introduced by Law No. 254/2022 amending Law 18/1991 (“Law 254/2022”).
The Legislative Proposal removes this 50-hectare land limit, which means that a project can be built on any surface of extra muros land needed (to the extent it is included in the categories for which the law allows the erection of constructions – quality classes III, IV and V, for instance).
This amendment would be very useful for wind and solar projects that are often developed on surface areas larger than 50 hectares and would eliminate the remaining uncertainties of the current solution developed in practice to overcome the 50-hectare challenge.
Read more here.