Romania has the opportunity to develop the production of advanced biofuels and thus become a regional leader in the decarbonization of the transport sector, says the Minister of Energy, Sebastian Burduja.
According to a press release of the ministry, the institution is developing, for the first time in Romania, a new financing instrument, dedicated to investments in the production of advanced biofuels.
“Romania has the opportunity to develop the production of advanced biofuels and thus become a regional leader in the decarbonization of the transport sector. Almost a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions are represented by the transport sector, whether we are talking about road, air transport or maritime,” said Burduja, in the press release quoted by Agerpres.
On October 4, 2024, the European Commission approved the state aid scheme worth 500 million euros, to support investments in the production of advanced biofuels in Romania.
To support this investment measure, the Ministry of Energy will request financing from the resources of the Modernization Fund, during the meeting of the Investment Committee next spring. In this sense, the documentation for the request for financial support is already prepared at the ministry level, which, in the first stage, will be 100 million euros, after which the rest of the amount will be requested, in stages.
“We need to develop the instruments through which we put into practice the achievement of the common targets, assumed at the European level. We live in a dynamic world, in permanent movement, but this freedom and efficiency come at a cost. Almost a quarter of gas emissions with the effect of the world’s greenhouse is represented by the transport sector, whether we are talking about road, air or sea transport. And because it is a field strongly dependent on fossil fuels, the introduction of advanced biofuels will increase the share of renewable energy sources in the fuel composition and, inevitably, had a positive impact on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Romania has the potential and capacity to develop the field, and we, at the Ministry of Energy, will support this type of investment. In this sense, the consultation that we had it in advance, the feedback received from the interested economic operators being harmonized and integrated into this new state aid scheme that we will launch,” emphasized the Minister of Energy.
The state aid scheme aims to support investments in new capacities for the production of advanced biofuels, such as bioethanol and hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), respectively sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), so that these types of biofuels ensure at least 5 % of final energy consumption in the transport sector by 2030.
The total estimated budget of the state aid scheme is approximately 500 million euros, the first call to be launched will have a budget of 100 million euros. The value of the state aid will be a maximum of 45% of the total investment costs, but not more than 45 million euros/bioethanol plant and 91.25 million euros/SAF/HVO plant.
The estimated production capacity of the advanced biofuels facility (tons/year) is at least 50,000 tons of bioethanol and 20,000 and 90,000 tons respectively for the combined SAF and HVO facility.