Nuclearelectrica is already acting to cover the cash-flow shortfall it will face during the shutdown of Unit 1 and sees renewables as a means to achieve this goal. The company will have to find new and “creative” ways in the period 2027-2030, but after that, the unit will probably provide the cheapest source of electricity in the country.
„From a cash flow perspective, we have our duties to our shareholders and we need to figure out creative ways to maintain cash flows during 2027 through 2029-2030 when half of our electricity and our cash flow will be shut down”, Cosmin Ghiță, CEO of Nuclearelectrica (SNN) said. He added that Nuclearelectrica is looking for “methods to bridge the cash gap while maintaining an interesting and challenging investment program”. In this respect, Nuclearelectrica sees renewables as “a way to potentially plug-in part of that gap and we hope to do this in partnership with our friends here at the 3 Seas Initiative and with European support”, explained the CEO.
The state-owned company generates clean base load energy and is preparing to install the first SMR in Doicești.
It’s a fact that refurbished nuclear reactors are the cheapest form of clean energy – , Cosmin Ghiță, CEO of Nuclearelectrica
Nuclearelectrica has signed a Letter of Intent with the 3 Seas Initiative Investment Fund to explore the possibility of a joint venture in the renewable energy production sector in Romania, in order to achieve common strategic objectives.
„We’re combining renewables both from solar with small modular reactors (SMR) and why not even hydrogen production to support clean steel manufacturing. We’re not competing, we’re all trying to solve the same problem through various commercial arrangements that can on one end enhance the risk profiles but on the second end provide cash flows and security of supply”, Ghiță added.
He highlighted that already, the Doicești power is producing electricity, as “80 MWs of solar have already been connected to the grid after the installations were built on the ash deposits resulting from the operation of the former coal-fired power plant”.
Cosmin Ghiță was one of the guests in a top-level conversation on the financing opportunities and projects that the Romanian energy sector presents within the remit of the 3SI initiative, in a side-event organized by Energynomics and the Romanian Energy Center Association in the margin of the 8th Three Seas Initiative Summit in Bucharest.