The capacities for generating electricity from renewable energy sources have significantly increased in the Republic of Moldova.
According to official data from the National Center for Sustainable Energy, the installed capacities for electricity generation through power plants utilizing renewable energy sources (photovoltaic power plants, wind power plants, hydroelectric power plants, and biogas cogeneration plants) have increased fivefold since 2018.
Thus, by the end of 2023, the total installed capacity amounted to 346.76 MW, compared to 61.6 MW at the end of 2018. It is worth noting that within just one year, 140 MW of new capacities for electricity generation from renewable sources were installed.
More than half of the total electricity generation capacities from renewable energy sources are attributed to photovoltaic power plants, including net metering (57.8%), followed by wind power plants at 35.4%, hydroelectric power plants at 4.8%, and biogas cogeneration power plants with a share of 2%.
Photovoltaic installations have recorded a significant leap in the evolution of electricity production capacities - over 40 times in 6 years. Thus, the electricity production capacities through photovoltaic installations, including net metering, have increased from 4.56 MW in 2018 to 200.61 MW in 2023.
The net-metering support mechanism, valid until January 2024 and replaced with Net Billing, allowed consumers, whether individuals or legal entities, who own electricity-generating facilities for own consumption, to feed surplus energy produced back into the grid. This played a significant role in the evolution of energy produced by photovoltaic installations in the Republic of Moldova by the end of 2023, with 5,051 beneficiaries registered cumulatively for the period 2018-2023, with a total cumulative capacity of 115.3 MW, constituting more than 50% of the electricity production capacities through photovoltaic installations. It is worth mentioning that at the end of 2018, there were only 57 beneficiaries of the net-metering mechanism, with a cumulative capacity of 542.3 kW.
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NET-METERING MECHANISM AND TRANSITION TO NET BILLING
The capacity for electricity production through wind installations has more than tripled - from 35.6 MW in 2018 to 122.5 MW in 2023. At the same time, the capacity for electricity production through biogas and hydro cogeneration power plants did not see major developments over the past 5 years, largely due to increased investment costs and long investment recovery periods. In 2023, the capacities for electricity production through biogas installations were 6.8 MW, and through hydro installations, 16.75 MW.