Ministry of Energy: Romania supports carbon neutrality by 2050

Romania is fully committed to and supports carbon neutrality by 2050, as mentioned in Romania's long-term energy strategy, the Secretary of State in the Ministry of Energy, Dan-Dragos Dragan, told the specialised conference "Developing infrastructure for the production, storage and supply of energy from renewable sources", organised by the Romanian-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AHK Romania) on Tuesday.He mentioned that the Ministry of Energy has published an updated version on the institution's website of "Romania's Energy Strategy 2025-2035, with an outlook to 2050", which will be sent to the European Commission in early October, after being adopted by the government."What is very important if we look at the whole energy sector? We need to see what is happening in each area of this sector. If we focus on generation, on energy production, we must know that we will develop in three categories: renewables, with at least 10,000 GW added by 2030, nuclear energy and gas," said the secretary of state.He explained that renewable energy technology is linked to photovoltaic panels, which are advancing faster than others. "The installed capacity is already making us reach the intermediate targets for 2026. We are also developing on-shore and off-shore wind capacity. We must also focus on hydropower because we have potential in Romania. We have seen in recent days the impact on the population and we need to take the necessary steps in this direction. We are also focusing on biomass, biogas and geothermal energy. We have resources in western Romania and in the vicinity of Bucharest and we want to use these resources to promote geothermal energy as well, thus reducing CO2 emissions by heating with geothermal energy. This energy can also be used for electricity production," said Dan-Dragos Dragan.As far as nuclear energy is concerned, he said that Romania will have two more CANDU units at Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant. "We have had this technology for a long time and we will install two other units, which will be commissioned by 2030-2031 and will also be connected to the grid," the Energy Ministry representative said.He said, at the same time, that our country has significant natural gas resources and that 80% of the national needs are provided by domestic production.In addition, the ministry is also considering allocating additional funds from the modernisation amounts for digitalisation in the energy sector."450 million EUR has been allocated for the development of new renewable energy production capacities. We have reached our targets for 2026 and these production units will be connected to the grid, regardless of whether they are produced at the consumer level or not. Another important aspect mentioned here concerns the rehabilitation of cogeneration units. We have already signed contracts with local authorities to replace their new and old installations with cogeneration. 350 million have already been allocated for this purpose," Dan-Dragos Dragan added.According to him, 400 million EUR have been allocated for public authorities to renew their district heating network.The Romanian-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AHK Romania) organized, on Tuesday, a conference on "Developing infrastructure for the production, storage and supply of energy from renewable sources".The conference is part of the project initiated and financed by the Federal Ministry of Economy and Climate Protection (BMWK) for German and Romanian companies interested in bilateral business in the field of infrastructure development for renewable energy and aims to promote German systems and products in this field on the Romanian market.The event will be attended by German and Romanian experts who will present current legislative and financial aspects, potential risks and technological opportunities for the development of green energy infrastructure in Romania.