Romania has the ambition to become a regional energy hub, senior official with Romania's Ministry of Energy Cristian Busoi, said on Friday at a Pria Renewable Energy Conference event.

'Romania has the ambition to become a regional energy hub. We have many preconditions by which to impose this ambitious goal on ourselves. We have some very large strategic projects. We are talking about units three and four at the Cernavoda nuclear power plant. Nuclear energy is not renewable, but it is an energy source that stabilises the system, a continuous source and a clean source of electricity that also helps us reduce emissions and achieve climate goals,' said Busoi.

He added that, for the transition period and together with the CO2 capture and storage technologies, Romania also benefits from gas resources, thus becoming the most important natural gas producer in the European Union, with Brexit and environmental policies that have reduced production in the Netherlands.

'With the Neptun Deep strategic project, Romania will double its production, will be an exporter of natural gas, at least for the region, and we will ensure from domestic sources, keeping the entire production chain and added value in Romania, the amount of gas necessary for the operation of Mintia, which will most likely come into operation at the beginning of 2026 and maybe, we hope of Romgaz's investment in Iernut, which will be a new source of electricity for the national energy system.'
Busoi added that our country also benefits, within its national energy system, from 'the modular mini reactors at Doicesti, a programme in cooperation with the U.S. on NuScale technology, six reactors of 77 megawatts each, which are an important source for the 2030s, when they will be ready'.

'Of course, in addition to nuclear energy, reactors three and four at Cernavoda, modular reactors, Neptun Deep and gas plants, including those of the Oltenia Energy Complex, we must close coal-fired power plants by the end of this year, because the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) asks us to do. We are fighting hard in Brussels for them to understand that we cannot close them this winter. It would mean very high electricity prices, even endangering Romania's energy security, for reasons attributable to the fact that we have difficulty moving with European funds, but also for objective reasons, such as problems related to supply chains, high demand for gas turbines at international level. Not only Romania is making this transition, Germany is doing it, Poland is doing it, other European countries are doing it, non-EU countries are doing it too.'

PRIAevents on Friday organised the Pria Renewable Energy Conference, a platform for debates on renewable energy, an event dedicated to net zero carbon dioxide emissions.

The conference was attended by, among others, Liciniu Lupu, founder & CEO of the Consulting Factory; Laurentiu Urluescu, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association of Energy Suppliers in Romania - AFEER; Mihai Macarie, senior governmental official, and Andrei Boti, chairman of the Romanian Green Building Council. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Cristian Anghelache; EN - writing by: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu)