The biggest need of the Romanian energy system today is the storage facilities and without them there is no energy security, said the minister of Energy, Sebastian Burduja, at a top-level conversation on the financing opportunities and projects that the Romanian energy sector presents within the remit of the 3SI initiative, in a side-event organized by Energynomics and the Romanian Energy Center Association in the margin of the 8th Three Seas Initiative Summit in Bucharest

„Storage is perhaps the biggest need of our energy system today. I don’t see a problem in increasing the share of green energy. There’s a lot of movement in the market, you see it every day and I’m not talking about real estate Investors, I’m talking about energy investors that are serious on delivering these projects and actually building them out. However, we can do all that and still not having secure energy. We’ll have green energy, we’ll probably have cheaper energy, but we won’t have secure energy [without storage] and I think that should be the main priority, at least for this ministry and for this country”, Burduja said.

In his opinion, Romania is going through ”an energy revolution”, while being blessed with a great energy mix and with access to very diverse resources.

Also, the state-owned companies have several ambitious projects. For example, gas producer Romgaz will be in 2027 Europe’s largest natural gas producer thanks to its participation in the Neptune Deep offshore gas project in the Black Sea. The investment in this project is estimated to 4 billion euro.

But, being in a region that some would consider quite hectic and aiming to replace the Russian gas imports, ”we can expect Russia to not sit quietly and witness how we develop this platform”, the minister added.

On the other hand, the Romanian authorities are working on a contract for differences (CfD) scheme which is supposed to fix the energy strike price for 15 years for solar and wind. The investments in solar and wind project are expected to reach 1 GW in each sector based on the CfD mechanism, but other energy sources could be included in this scheme, such as nuclear and geothermal.

PHOTO GALLERY OF THE EVENT

”We will have the tender, I hope by the end of this year, that will really ensure that investors in serious projects have that stability over a long horizon in the context of an energy market that’s still quite unpredictable. We hope to see a lot of involvement in those auctions, I hope to see many of the companies that essentially are under the authority of the ministry participate in that auction.”

Romania will invest billions of euros into new production facilities solar and wind, but unfortunately the country has to import all the necessary equipment from China, ”which is not always a good idea”.

According to the minister, by importing these equipment Romania wastes the opportunity to have a local production of solar panels and components for the windmills.

The need for energy is underlined also by the future reconstruction of Ukraine which will be done either through Romania or Poland. The process will require large amounts of energy and Romania should be prepared.

”Depending on the area of Ukraine that you will target, companies, industries, funding will choose either Poland or Romania. For that effort we will need a lot of energy and we will need a lot of industry that we no longer have or we have a lot less than before”, Burduja stated.

The ministry of Energy was one of the keynote speakers at a top-level conversation on the financing opportunities and projects that the Romanian energy sector presents within the remit of the 3SI initiative, in a side-event organized by Energynomics and the Romanian Energy Center Association in the margin of the 8th Three Seas Initiative Summit in Bucharest.