​The ban on gas apartment installations remains on the public agenda. The new Minister of the Environment, Mircea Fechet, promises to conduct a “serious analysis” of this issue.

The debate has been going on for several years, and last summer former minister Tanchos Barna announced that the government’s decision on the matter was included in the approval scheme, new rules aimed at banning certain power plants in the case of new buildings. However, no decision has been made yet.

“We have not yet decided on the date when these power plants will disappear, but in the long term I am convinced that in Romania and in large urban agglomerations we will have fewer and fewer such power plants. I don’t want to give a deadline now, because I will have to do a very serious analysis on this topic, but I promise you that in a very short time we will present my opinion and the opinion of the ministry in the end also about indoor plants,” the new minister said on Wednesday Environment Minister Mircea Fecet, quoted by Agerpres.

Why should gas boilers be banned?

The European Union aims to shut down gas-fired power plants as soon as possible.

REPowerEU’s proposals call for member states to phase out fossil fuel-fired power plants, strengthen national requirements for the replacement of small power plants and limit the introduction of gas-fired power plants after 2029. REPowerEU is also encouraging member states to introduce national bans on residential fossil fuel power plants in existing and new homes. Although there are such intentions at the EU level, there is still no EU legislation that would introduce such bans, according to an analysis by the president of the Intelligent Energy Association, Dumitru Ciselice.

According to him, eight European countries have already started the process of banning the use of gas installations in buildings:

• 1. Denmark – since 2013, it has been prohibited to connect new buildings to the natural gas network. It has been established that by 2028, half of the houses will be connected to centralized heating networks
• 2. Norway – since 2017, it has banned the connection of new buildings to the natural gas network
• 3. The Netherlands – since 2018, it has been prohibited to connect new buildings to the natural gas network
• 4. France – in connection with the introduction of restrictions on CO2 emissions for heating installations of new buildings, it has de facto banned the installation of gas and oil installations from 2022.
• 5. Austria – from 2024, it will introduce a ban on the repair of old TPPs and the installation of new TPPs
• 6. Germany – from 2024 obligates 64% of the energy used for new heating systems to come from renewable energy sources, de facto prohibits the installation of gas and oil installations from 2022
• 7. Great Britain – from 2025, it is forbidden to install gas plants and oil products in new buildings.
• 8. Belgium – prohibits the installation of fossil fuel power plants in new buildings from 2025.

How many gas thermal power plants are there in Romania?

According to a document from the Ministry of Energy, Romania currently has approximately 8.5 million houses, of which approximately 7.5 million are inhabited. Of them approx. 4.2 million are individual houses, and about 2.7 million are apartments located in apartment buildings.

Of the total number of houses, only about 1.2 million are connected to the centralized sitemel (about 600,000 apartments in Bucharest alone). A third of houses in Romania (nearly 2.5 million) are heated directly with natural gas, using central heating systems for apartments, as well as furnaces with extremely low efficiency (at least 250,000 houses).

About 3.5 million homes (the vast majority in rural areas) use solid fuel – mostly wood, but also coal, which is burned in furnaces with very low efficiency. The rest of the houses are heated with liquid fuel (fuel oil, diesel or liquefied gas) or electricity. More than half of the houses in Romania are partially heated in winter.

• PUBLIC DISCUSSION Is it a good idea to ban central heating in new buildings? What mayors, ecoactivists and developers say