Romania is participating in a new megalomaniacal project: the Green Corridor. It envisages the construction of a direct current cable (HVDC) that will connect four countries: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary. Energy Minister Sebastian Bourduya was in Budapest on Tuesday to sign a memorandum of understanding with the respective ministers of the three other states.

System operators from four countries will create a project company, and the technical and economic justification will be provided as soon as possible, the Ministry of Energy said in a statement. Sebastián Burduya suggested that the headquarters of the company should be in Bucharest, and the final decision will be taken during the negotiations in the next period.

This is not the first time that Romania enters into such projects of connection with other states. One of them was AGRI, which ensured the transportation of liquefied gas from Azerbaijan through Georgia and the construction of a liquefied gas terminal on the territory of Romania. Another project was Nabucco, which involved the delivery of gas from the Shah Deniz-2 gas field, located in Azerbaijan, through a pipeline that would start in Bulgaria and pass through Romania, Hungary, and reach Austria. Both projects failed.

The underground cable will have 850 kilometers on the territory of Romania

It is a 5,000 MW underground direct current (HVDC) cable that will cross Romania from east to west. State-owned company Transelectrica recently announced that a feasibility study will be developed for this cable, and to this end it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with TAQA, Meridiam, E-INFRA and Fluor.

The length of the cable will be 850 kilometers. Some of the investors who signed the memorandum are also involved in the innovative NuScale mini-reactor project, which was supposed to be built in Deutschland but just failed in the US.

This infrastructure should be located on the Tuzla-Podisor route and on the Bulgaria-Romania-Hungary-Austria (BRUA) gas pipeline, using the existing corridors for the two routes.

Sebastian Burduya spoke Romanian in Budapest

During the meeting in Budapest, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the relevant ministries of Romania, the Republic of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Hungary on cooperation in the field of green energy with the aim of deepening cooperation to achieve common goals regarding the development of green energy, including hydrogen production, the Ministry of Energy also shows.

The Energy Ministry says Sebastian Burduia spoke in Romanian to media at the event, talking about states that “used energy as a weapon or at least as a tool of blackmail” against the European Union.

“We are united in this Green Corridor project because we all want to strengthen the energy security of the entire region. Romania is ready to take on the role of an energy hub, a provider of stability, with all the necessary resources: from solar and wind energy to nuclear energy and geothermal sources. This project, launched in Bucharest in December 2022 in the presence of the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, must move forward quickly with the support of all. We must act in full coordination with our national strategies and with a long-term perspective. They say, sometimes you have to plant the seed of a tree, in the shade of which we will never rest, but it will be for our children and grandchildren. We are here today for such a project,” said Sebastian Burduza, the Ministry of Energy reports.

For more information about underground cable, read also

We have an MoU for a huge DC cable through Romania / Feasibility study pending

Photo source: Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert / DPA / Profimedia