Romania could become a pioneer in new technologies regarding hydrogen and carbon storage, as in hydrogen it managed to have the first state aid scheme approved at European level, says the Minister of Energy, Sebastian Burduja.
“It is an important topic that you are addressing today. I would be happy if it were talked about more because it concerns the future, but it is already starting to concern the present as well. My dream would be to make Romania a pioneer in these new technologies, as we managed to have the first state aid scheme approved at the European level for hydrogen,” said the minister on Thursday, at the event “Gases of the future. Hydrogen and carbon storage in the Romanian energy industry,” organized by the Intelligent Energy Association.
“From the PNRR, we managed to sign, right at the end of last year, four contracts and reach our target, the related PNRR milestone, 100 million euro total budget – and four contracts that reach the quantitative target assumed by Romania in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. It is also important to say that for all those interested in hydrogen production, we are preparing a very similar appeal in the Modernization Fund. There we have a dedicated program, there will be even larger amounts available and, after we have already a market consultation, we are waiting for the launch of this important call, the finalization of the Guide, obtaining all the approvals: the Competition Council, DG Competition, the finalization of the scheme and then the launch of the call, which we see as feasible in the second part of this year,” Sebastian Burduja also said, according to Agerpres.
He was asked what is the vision of the ministry considering the trend observed at the European level regarding the rigid financing conditions of natural gas, even if it is admitted as a transitional fuel, and on the other hand whereas the Net Zero requirement imposes a need for decarbonization and in the natural gas sector and through the supply of green gases.
“As far as Carbon Capture Storage is concerned, it is certainly a need in the energy sector and in the industrial sector. It is a topic of interest at the European level (…) We had discussions in Athens, last week, at an interministerial meeting dedicated to Eastern and Southern Europe, where this problem arose and Romania certainly came up and said that we would very much like to be able to finance the gas infrastructure – and we faced an almost total refusal of financing from the Modernization Fund,” said the minister.
He recalled that Transgaz came up with several projects that “are not only in Romania’s interest”, but are of regional interest in connecting and bringing gas from Romania, including from the Black Sea, from Neptun Deep, since 2027, to the EU market.
“Unfortunately, the refusal was quite categorical, including at the level of European Commissioner Kadri Simson, who, by the way, at the level of the Commission, was the most favorable to the energy sector, including natural gas, but there are other positions – DG Climate, there is the position The European Investment Bank – and all of them conveyed that it is very difficult at the moment to finance natural gas infrastructure projects even as non-priority projects from the Modernization Fund. Their advice was to try to work together with Transgaz and all those interested to have a greening of these projects, including a possibility to combine natural gas with hydrogen in a blending – and to be able, thus, to make these projects eligible in the short term, and in the medium and long term to have the possibility of this blending. On Carbon capture and storage, we discussed with the companies in the portfolio of the Ministry of Energy to create a transport infrastructure. For example, Conpet could be a prime candidate to contribute to this goal,” the Minister of Energy also said.