Compressed natural gas (CNG) is the only viable solution in the transition to climate neutrality as it generates 25% less polluting emissions than traditional fuels, said Dumitru Becșenescu, president of Antares Group, at the conference “Energy Efficiency for Energy Transition” organised in București by Energynomics together with the Romanian Energy Efficiency Fund – FREE and the Directorate for Energy Efficiency within the Ministry of Energy.
“The question is whether we will be able to go beyond a few steps to implement tomorrow what we propose for 2050, or whether we need a transition process in which something concrete and with solutions at hand actually happens,” said Becșenescu.
However, “things are different from what was intended,” he added, and society and business should not wait for things to settle down during this period. The reality also shows that it will be very difficult to reach the 2050 climate neutrality target without an alternative solution in the transition period.
According to Becșenescu, the energy strategy shows that Romania needs investments of 2.1 trillion euros to achieve climate neutrality, equivalent to 7.3 national GDP.
In his view, CNG is a necessary fuel for this transition because it is less polluting. In addition, Romania has the advantage of having gas resources, and their exploitation can have a significant impact on Romania’s budget and trade balance.
DOWNLOAD THE PRESENTATION OF DUMITRU BECȘENESCU
The Antares Group has developed the country’s first network of CNG filling stations. The network consists of 14 stations, and the investment in such a unit amounts to 800.000 euros. The company’s plan is to create a CNG market in the country and use only CNG for its own fleet by 2027.
To create this network, the group received European funding of 4.4 million euros and a 3 million euro loan from the Romanian Fund for Energy Efficiency – FREE.
By 2010, Antares aims to build four new CNG stations in Bucharest (two units), Cluj-Napoca, and Bacău.
The conference in Buvharest was the last of a series of 5 scheduled by the Energynomics communication platform, the Romanian Fund for Energy Efficiency – FREE and the Directorate for Energy Efficiency within the Ministry of Energy. The project was financed by Norwegian Grants 2014-2021.