Yesterday, the Romanian government adopted an ‘Emergency Ordinance’ concerning the completion of the legal framework for the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources (RES), including the modification of some normative acts. The new set of rules and regulations was originally proposed by the Ministry of Energy.
According to the Ministry’s press release, the adoption of the emergency ordinance contributes to reaching the greenhouse gas reduction goals in the ‘most cost-effective way’ and in accordance with Romania’s own circumstances, with the energy mix and specific capacity to produce energy from renewable sources.
The completion of the legal framework that promotes the use of RES (for the 2021-2023 period) is also expected to accelerate the implementation of investment projects that are carried out through the financing provided by Component 6 (Energy) of the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Plan for Romania (NextGenerationEU).
In particular, the adopted Emergency Ordinance has enabled the following changes:
- New rules related to the financial support for electricity from renewable sources, the self-consumption of electricity from RES and the use of energy from renewable sources in the heating and cooling and transport sectors;
- criteria for sustainability and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions established for biofuels, bio-liquids and biomass fuels;
- regulation of sustainability criteria under new European regulations for biomass fuels: establishment of simple notification procedure for grid connections of installations, widespread adoption of renewable energy use in the transport sector, renewable energy prosumers and communities, use large-scale use of renewable energy in the heating and cooling sector.
Separately, earlier this month at COP27, the Romanian Minister of Energy, Virgil Popescu, received a Letter of Interest regarding the financing of the construction of two new units of the Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant (NPP).
