The transition from coal to natural gas, although it may seem a winning solution in Romania, is not yet accepted in the European Union, where hydrogen or other fuels are considered a solution, and not natural gas, said the state secretary of the Ministry of European Funds, Adrian Mariciuc, according to Agerpres.

“Things are not yet established, because, unfortunately, this transition from coal to gas, although it might seem the winning solution in many cases in Romania, is still not accepted at European level. They want something else, not gas. And I think that hydrogen or other fuels could be the solution, that’s why I say that we are still waiting and trying to find the best solution, both for the specifics of Romania, because it is something we have to take into account, but the agreement must be reached at European level,” said Mariciuc.

The Secretary of State specified that at present the Ministry of European Funds does not have any solution regarding cogeneration, because this activity also includes fossil fuels, in the context in which the Green Deal focuses on alternative fuels.

“The Operational Program ‘Large Infrastructure’ will focus for the period 2021-2027 on two programs: it remains in the area of Operational Transport Program, because even in the current period we have the priority axes on the Transport area, and the Environment area. For cogeneration, things are not very well defined here, in the sense that most of the time we are talking about a fossil fuel component in all this activity, or the Green Deal (European Ecological Pact) puts a lot of emphasis on this area of green fuels, of alternative fuels. We don’t have a solution for this part at the moment, there are really big projects, especially in the district heating area, in the energy generation area, on which we will have to make a decision,” said Mariciuc.