The Tarnița-Lăpuşteşti pumped storage hydropower plants are much more environmentally friendly and even more efficient than having whole fields of batteries that we don’t know what we will do with, we don’t know how they will be recycled, for the production of which we pollute anyway, said, on Thursday, the minister of Energy, Sebastian Burduja, according to Agerpres.

He was asked to talk about the storage plan in terms of renewable energy.

“There are estimates that say that Romania needs 4,000 MW of storage. I personally am a fan of storage through pumped storage hydropower plants, of the Tarnița-Lăpuşteşti type. They are, from my perspective, much more environmentally friendly and even more efficient rather than having whole fields of batteries that we don’t know what to do with, we don’t know how to recycle them, for the production of which we pollute anyway, they are based on materials that are mined, in conditions of environmental pollution, and therefore I personally will insist a lot for Tarnița-Lăpuşteşti, for the pumped storage hydropower plant from Bicaz, from Izvorul Muntelui, the one from Măcin”, said Burduja.

The Head of Energy specified that there are eight projects that have been identified at the national level, but the most advanced is certainly Tarnița.

“Just yesterday (Wednesday – n. r.) the announcement for the feasibility study was uploaded on SICAP. On Friday it will be public and we are waiting for offers from serious designers, so that in 6-9 months we will have the feasibility study (SF) and then let’s launch the project and see it implemented in Romania. So, I would like at least half of the 4 GW of storage to be pumped storage, the rest batteries and also at households, in parallel with a program like ‘Casa green’. I think that the future editions of the ‘Casa verde’ program – and Minister Fechet agrees – should reward those who have a storage component”, added the minister.