Until 2030, Romania cannot give up on natural gas, so it will have to very intelligently combine hydrocarbon-based and renewable resources, according to Cristian Athanasovici, Business Development Manager, Kawasaki Gas Turbines Europe. As a novelty, Kawasaki Europe is ready to co-finance local cogeneration projects, he announced at the “Investments for Energy Transition” conference, organized by Energynomics, on 28 January.
“Last year we signed a deal with a partner to finance energy efficiency projects through solutions made with Kawasaki equipment. We have this agreement signed, and we are ready to present it and finance up to a maximum of 12 million euro, with a duration of 10-12 years. The Energy Efficiency Investment Fund finances the Kawasaki Europe projects and it has nothing to do with the final customer – the end user of the cogeneration plant. This fund finances Kawasaki, which delivers the cogeneration equipment, provides long-term maintenance and remains the owner of the equipment until the moment the final customer pays for the equipment. We can assimilate this concept to a leasing – which is very important from the perspective of the balance sheet of the final customer. Our colleagues analyze the customer’s situation, the market, and depending on the risks identified, we discuss the detailed financing conditions, i.e. guarantees, interest and other issues. The condition is that maintenance, after delivery and commissioning, is done by Kawasaki,” Athanasovici explained.
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“Kawasaki is ready to offer high-performance technologies for power and heat generation on both natural gas and hydrogen. We already have a hydrogen application in Japan. We hope to bring a new project to Europe, one that has been under discussion for over a year and a half,” Athanasovici said.
After the Fukushima incident, Japan’s only sustainable way of energy security has become hydrogen. Thus, Japanese companies were asked by the government to come up with hydrogen-based solutions, and Kawasaki began with the construction of a liquid hydrogen transport ship and then developed all other applications.
Kawasaki also built the first hydrogen-powered cogeneration plant in the Japanese city of Kobe. There, the plant uses 100% hydrogen, producing 1.7MWe; the combustion process can also be accompanied by natural gas.
Kawasaki Gas Turbines produce gas turbines, internal combustion engines and it is present on the amarket with integrated solutions for cogeneration power and heating plants for different types of consumers.
