The Government approved on Thursday, through a Decision, the law on the National Hydrogen Strategy 2025-2030, with a perspective of 2050, and the Action Plan for its implementation, according to an announcement on the Executive’s website.
“Through this Government Decision, two programmatic documents relevant to the current context of decarbonization were approved, which aim to introduce hydrogen as an energy vector at the national level, namely, the National Hydrogen Strategy (SNH) for the period 2025-2030, with a perspective of 2050, and the Action Plan for its implementation,” the document states.
By approving the SNH and the related Action Plan, Romania meets one of the energy objectives assumed within the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), namely the objective of the R4 reform: Developing a legislative and regulatory framework favorable to future technologies, especially hydrogen and storage solutions – milestone no. 126.
For the development of the strategic directions proposed in the SNH, 4 general objectives and 23 specific objectives are defined, detailed in the text of the strategy, as well as an Action Plan for 2030, respectively a set of action directions in the perspective of the years 2035 and 2050. All of this aims to eliminate legislative barriers and support critical investments in the production and consumption chain, as well as achieving national objectives in the field of decarbonization, in line with the growing importance of the use of hydrogen at the European Union level in the effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
However, as I wrote previously, the Government has allowed the share of hydrogen use in transport to be reduced from 5.5% to at least 1%, which shows a greater focus on other resources.
The 4 objectives defined in the strategy are:
- Decarbonization of the economy, by using renewable hydrogen in sectors that are difficult to decarbonize by other methods (for example: the impossibility of direct electrification);
- Economic growth through the sustainable development of technologies for industries that are difficult to decarbonize and the creation of new jobs;
- Technological development to ensure a long-term mobilization of the hydrogen economy and to support the attraction of investments in the economy and the increase in the standard of living;
- Energy security, by using hydrogen and Power-to-X solutions to optimize the integration of renewable energy sources and to achieve sectoral integration.
The document identifies five potential hydrogen valleys, regions with the potential to build a hydrogen economy in Romania:
Valley 1: Bucharest – Ploiesti – Targoviste – Pitesti
Valley 2: Constanța – Medgidia – Călărași – Slobozia
Valley 3: Cluj – Târgu Mureș – Sighișoara – Sibiu – Sebeș
Valley 4: Galați – Brăila – Tulcea
Valley 5: Craiova – Slatina – Târgu Jiu – Rm.Vâlcea
