Energy Minister Burduja: “Romania will add 10,000 MW of solar and wind energy in the next 3-5 years”

Romania will have, in the next three to five years, 10,000 MW of solar and wind energy in addition to what it currently has and 3,500 MW in modernized gas plants, said the Minister of Energy, Sebastian Burduja, at the ministerial meeting organized within the framework of the Partnership for Transatlantic Cooperation in Energy and Climate (P-TECC).

“Now, energy is at the center of our lives. It literally fuels our daily lives. It’s about prosperity and living standards. It’s about economic competitiveness. It’s about where we’re going as a free world. And now we have this very difficult question, how are we going to achieve security and competitiveness and also protect the environment? I can tell you a little bit about what Romania did, and the first thing we relied on was the injection of a large amount of money with the help of the EU and to our partners in the energy sector. And the numbers are amazing. In the next three to five years, we will have more than 10,000 megawatts of solar and wind power, in addition to what we already have in gas plants modernized. We have already invested 1.5 billion euros in grant money in our networks,” said Burduja, Agerpres reads.

He added that Romania also pays attention to innovation, and Wednesday marks an important milestone, because the Doicesti small modular reactor project enters a new phase, that of the feasibility study, at the end of which the final investment decision will be made.

“I am very proud of our company, Nuclearelectrica, because it was at the forefront of this effort. I am proud of the Romanian company Nova, which is a partner in RoPower, the project company. And I am proud of Nuscale and Fluor, the American companies involved, because I’m looking at what could be the key elements to solving many of the challenges. It’s actually a nice metaphor, the conversion of an old coal-fired plant that was demolished to make way for this modern engineering miracle, the small modular reactor plant. And if everything goes according to plan, in 2029, I hope, in 2029, we will have the first SMR. We are not afraid of challenges. (…) In conclusion, if we look at world history, innovation and science and the energy sector, if we study the lives of great minds like Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla and many others, there is a common trait that unites them all. And really, I think that is courage, the courage to dream and the courage to pursue things that humanity has never done before”, pointed out the Minister of Energy.

High-ranking representatives from the public and private energy sector met on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Palace of Parliament, at the fifth meeting of P-TECC, organized by the US Department of Energy, the Romanian Ministry of Energy and the Atlantic Council. Wednesday’s ministerial meeting focuses on the role of industrial policy in achieving the transatlantic goals of energy security and climate.