​​If in terms of electricity we are already used to forests of wind turbines and pastures of solar panels, then in terms of thermal energy in Romania it is still at an early stage. Bucharest’s heating system, the country’s largest with installations dating back to the 1960s, narrowly avoided bankruptcy and now wants to focus on investing in green areas – geothermal, solar, biomass and storage – with European money.

“If you don’t believe in global warming, I remind you that it’s November 6, it’s 20 degrees outside, and we’re wearing T-shirts,” says Claudio Kretsu, CEO of Electrocentrale Bucharest, in a conversation with HotNews.ro.

The company plans to access European money through the Modernization Fund to use geothermal energy from the capital’s basements to heat some Bucharest residents.

“We are not talking about replacing the system, but about switching to renewable energy, about hybridization. This is a natural movement, similar to the electricity sector, where green energy entered at first more timidly, now boldly. the civilized world uses renewable energy for heating,” Kretsu says.

There are several cities in Romania that are heated by geothermal energy, such as Oradea or Beiș.

Discussions about the geothermal potential of the capital have been going on for a long time, but so far nothing concrete has been done. In recent years, the capital’s heat and power utilities have been more worried about insolvency, bankruptcy, unprofitability and survival.

“With the stabilization of the system, with the transition to investment logic, with the war in Ukraine, which showed us how important energy security is, here the geothermal topic becomes important both from the point of view of efficiency and from the point of view of security. the need is there, the context is right because the price of gas has increased and we are interested in making energy as cheap as possible for the people of Bucharest.

This does not mean that we dream that after a year Bucharest will be heated by geothermal energy, especially since the temperature below Bucharest is not very high, we are not talking about 100 degrees, but about 40-50-60 degrees. But geothermal energy can be a very useful source of energy, especially in the summer when losses are high,” says Chief Elsen.

In the next period, the company will conduct technical studies to see the profitability of such investments and possible partnerships with companies in this field.

Advantages? Less gas consumption, decarbonization, green energy, lower price per gigacalorie for Bucharest residents, Kretsu hopes.

He clarified that although the northern region of the capital seems richer, geothermal water resources will be in the entire basement of the capital, and new power plants can be built right on the site of the current CHPs.

In addition, the northern part of the capital is more deficient in terms of central heating, since all CHPs are located south of the city.

“The main challenge in this project is the element of novelty, and we must convince, push the project forward. Bureaucracy is also a problem and we are talking about many institutions from which we have to take data and work. it would be interesting to have a geothermal law as is the case in other countries where the permitting process is much clearer. But the important thing is that we are discussing this topic,” Elcen’s representative added.

What do you say to those who say that there are green horses on the walls?

There are green horses on the walls, but this geothermal energy is also used in other cities. In the 80s, when we made these wells, we understood that the problem was water quality. Meanwhile, technology has advanced and solutions for water purification have emerged. We can see these green horses on the walls in Terme, in Baloteşti.

In the beginning, wind turbines and solar panels were also seen as green horses on the walls, but now everyone is going to invest in this direction.

All of Europe and the entire civilized world is investing in renewable energy. Geothermal energy does not come from Russia or Azerbaijan, but we have it.

They also say that we are throwing money away. We are not throwing money away, we will have a serious project that will be analyzed at the European level, and if we receive funding, then it will be a serious project that deserves to be continued.

This does not mean replacing the heating system, but hybridization. We are studying several options: geothermal, heat pumps, photovoltaic panels, storage. And, I repeat, everything makes sense if the price for consumers will be lower as a result.

There are large European cities that today use thermal energy from waste, from biomass, from heat pumps that store energy. We do not invent hot water. What we can do is to adapt existing, certified solutions to avoid these “green horses on the walls”. There are no green horses on the walls, there are solutions that work today in Copenhagen, Vienna, Berlin or Munich.

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