The Company for Romanian state’s Administration of Participations in Energy (SAPE) obtained funding from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) for one of its most important projects, that of energy storage using green hydrogen.
Thus, for the project “Green hydrogen production unit by electrolysis – Hidrogen HY S.A.P.E. 10”, in the amount of 54,632,988.24 lei without VAT, SAPE receives a financing of 29,959,755.00 lei without VAT (about 54.8%), through PNRR.
The new Polymer Membrane Electrolyte (PEM) hydrogen production facility will use 3 MW of renewable energy to produce 1.83 MW of H2. The amount of green hydrogen produced annually is 425 tons. For the production of hydrogen, 23,438 MWh/year of electricity from renewable sources will be used.
The project is expected to be completed by the end of next year. This project represents an important step towards the energy transition and contributes to the decarbonisation objectives of the European Union, offering innovative solutions for the storage of energy from renewable sources.
“In order to reach the climate neutrality targets of the Green Deal, the European Union (EU) proposed, among other things, the development of a hydrogen-based economy, which can play a key role in energy storage, to compensate for supply and demand fluctuations of energy from renewable sources. The new vision of our company, presented in the SAPE strategy, refers to the development in the field of electricity production, in a mix as diverse as possible. We already have green energy production in wind and photovoltaic plants, we have natural gas projects and we are also involved in energy storage, with the Tarnița – Lăpuștesti pumped hydro plant project and smaller projects, such as this one, of energy storage using hydrogen, S.A.P.E. Hydrogen 10. We are pleased that we managed to obtain funding through PNRR with this project! In fact, two years ago, on the occasion of the European Hydrogen Forum, the project “S.A.P.E. Hydrogen 10″ was approved by the European Commission, being included in the project portfolio at the EU level. It is a recognition of the value and involvement of the entire SAPE team in the latest technologies available! This fact is all the more meritorious as the project is implemented in the village of Dârvari, Valea Călugărească commune, Prahova county, where we also own two photovoltaic parks. Incidentally, this was our thinking: generating green energy and storing it using hydrogen. Thus, we will also be able to participate in balancing the energy system: we deliver energy to the system when needed or store it in hydrogen when the demand is lower than the energy supply. This is a new line of business that we are starting now,” said Bogdan Nicolae Stănescu, President of the SAPE Directorate.
The Company for the Administration of Participations in Energy SA (SAPE) was established in 2013, through the partial division of SC Electrica SA. SAPE took over all the rights and obligations from the privatization contracts of the former companies Electrica Banat, Electrica Dobrogea, Electrica Moldova, Electrica Oltenia and Electrica Muntenia Sud. The most important holdings of SAPE, currently, are Titan Power (67.3%), Indra Soluciones Tecnologias de la Informacion Romania (49%), PPC Energie (37%), Rețele Electrice Dobrogea (24.9%), Rețele Electrice Banat (24.87%), Kazakh-Romanian Energy Investment Fund (20%), PPC Energie Muntenia (10%) and Electric Networks Muntenia (10%). SAPE SA has a share capital of 868.5 million lei, divided into registered shares, with a nominal value of 10 lei each. Its sole shareholder is the Romanian state through the Ministry of Energy.