This paper attempts to create an overview of the current situation in the Romanian energy sector, pointing out elements of energy demand, production, investment in the sector and not least the potential of renewable energy sources. As Romania has aligned itself with the European Commission's 20-20-20 program, an important step in achieving the set targets is represented by a significant amount of investments in the development of energy from renewable sources. But there are a number of challenges that investment projects may face, namely, barriers more or less deliberate, more difficult or easier to overcome or remove, some of them real market distortions and others coming from the comparison between green energy and classic sources of energy. So, the last part of the work is dedicated to these barriers. Dividing them into four categories administrative barriers, technical and technological barriers, market barriers and economic barriers allows a better distribution of the identified barriers. It is a comprehensive and equitable approach than their splitting into cost barriers and non-cost barriers, which would have meant a long list for the second category specified.