Ahold Delhaize Locks 370 GWh a Year in 10-Year Romanian vPPA

Ahold Delhaize has signed a 10-year virtual power purchase agreement for roughly 370 GWh of renewable electricity per year from Rezolv Energy, the final piece in a five-deal program that now covers the retailer's expected European power consumption by 2030 — five years ahead of its original 2035 target.

The Netherlands-based food retailer announced the agreement today. It backs two new-build projects in Romania: the 1.3 GWp Dama Solar plant in Arad County, western Romania, and the 300 MW Dunarea East Wind Farm. Together they're expected to generate 2,580 GWh annually, with Ahold Delhaize contracting about 14% of that combined output.

What does the deal actually deliver?

The vPPA supports new large-scale solar and wind capacity rather than existing generation, and the numbers behind it are sizable:

• Dama Solar: 1.3 GWp capacity, expected to produce approximately 1,800 GWh annually, covering more than 1,000 hectares — including 82 hectares designated as a nature reserve. Once operational, the companies say it will be the EU's largest onshore renewable energy project.
• Dunarea East Wind Farm: 300 MW of wind capacity.
• Commercial operations: both projects are slated to start in 2029.

According to the companies, the arrangement ranks among the largest corporate renewable energy deals signed in Southeastern Europe and is one of the first in Romania to combine solar and wind under a single agreement.

Lenka Duskova, CFO of Ahold Delhaize Europe & Indonesia, said: "We are pleased to support the development of these wind and solar projects in Romania, which will add new renewable capacity to the grid while contributing to a more sustainable future for the communities we serve."

The takeaway: this is contracted, additional capacity with a 2029 commissioning date and a decade-long offtake — not an unbundled certificate purchase.

How does it close the European renewables gap?

This is the fifth and final power purchase agreement under Ahold Delhaize's European renewable energy program. Earlier deals landed in the Netherlands in 2023, Spain in 2024, and Romania and Finland in 2025.

With the full portfolio in place, the company now expects to match its European electricity consumption with renewable supply by 2030. That pulls the milestone forward five years from the original 2035 deadline — a target acceleration worth tracking against actual delivery, since the underlying Romanian projects don't come online until 2029.

One sentence: five PPAs in three years, and the last one does the heavy lifting on paper until the plants switch on.

Where does it sit in the climate targets?

The agreement plugs into Ahold Delhaize's broader decarbonization commitments, each with a fixed date:

• Net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across own operations (Scope 1 and 2) by 2040.
• Net-zero across the entire value chain by 2050.
• Absolute Scope 3 forest, land and agriculture (FLAG) emissions down 30.3% by 2030 and at least 72% by 2050, against a 2020 baseline.

The Scope 3 FLAG targets are the demanding part — electricity procurement addresses operational emissions, while land-use emissions in the food supply chain remain the harder 2030 test.

Alastair Hammond, CEO of Rezolv Energy, said: "This is one of the largest and most important corporate renewable energy agreements ever signed in Southeastern Europe. By committing to such a significant share of the output from these two iconic projects, Ahold Delhaize has become a key corporate investor in Romania's energy transition."

The milestone to watch: commercial operation of Dama Solar and Dunarea East in 2029, which decides whether the accelerated 2030 renewables claim holds in practice.