Energy Minister Sebastian Burduja: “We will launch the call for projects for hydrogen production in 1-2 weeks”

The Ministry of Energy will launch the call for projects for investments in hydrogen production in two weeks at most, according to the statements made by the Minister Sebastian Burduja at Regional Energy Forum (FOREN 2024).

“In the last year, we tried to accelerate started projects, especially investments. In PNRR, almost all things are set up. I am glad that Investment 1 was a success. From the 460 million euros and a target of 950 MW, we have contracted around 2,000 MW with the same money. This means that the private market has reacted and there is a great appetite for green energy projects, with little help from the Government and the EU.

The call for hydrogen projects will be completed in no more than 2 weeks. This means that we will have 100 million euros for hydrogen production in Romania,” Minister Burduja explained.

“We also managed to accelerate investments through the Modernization Fund. We started the call for heating networks, we have already signed contracts with multiple cities (Cluj Napoca, Constanta, Suceava, Craiova).

We have a series of project calls in preparation. We are preparing the support scheme for energy storage, which represents priority 0 in the national energy system. By the end of the year, we want to allocate at least 150 million euros for investments in storage capacities.

As a very short-term priority, I would like to have a national energy strategy as soon as possible, but also a new PNIESC (Integrated National Plan in the field of Energy and Climate Change) that we are working on. These two strategic documents should put things in order and help accelerate investments in the energy sector,” he added.

The Romanian National Committee of the World Energy Council (CNR-CME) organizes on June 16-18 the biennial Regional Energy Forum (FOREN).

Having reached its 17th edition, FOREN 2024 responds to a real need for analysing and debating on the status of the energy sectors in the Central and Southeast European region and identifying cooperation solutions in energy domain.