Jiului Valley has become a magnet for innovative energy projects. In the past month, the Ministry of Energy has announced two such projects: one involves the storage of “gravitational” energy, and the other replaces coal with biomass for energy production. These are not the only state energy projects with a more or less innovative nature, with which the state is now taking steps. There are also mini-reactors in Deutsches, under the patronage of the Ministry of Energy, there is another one with small nuclear reactors, but this one is supported by the president, we also have an underground cable of permanent current (HVDC) with a capacity of 5000 MW, etc.

There have also been grand projects in the past that failed after money was spent on feasibility studies. It remains to be seen how many of the current ones will survive the feasibility stage and how many will be brought to completion. Each of them requires a feasibility study, which can end up costing millions of euros, and some of them require the creation of design companies with the necessary rigor.

Jiului Valley Projects, From Gravity to Biomass Energy

The project in Valea Jiului, announced by the Ministry of Energy, “is designed to explore the possibility of applying the innovative Green Gravity energy storage technology in 17 mine shafts at four mining facilities in Valea Jiului in Romania.” The Ministry of Energy says it is an innovative gravity-powered project that will redefine the Valea Jiului energy complex.

The Green Gravity energy storage system moves large loads vertically into obsolete mine shafts to capture and release the potential gravitational energy of those loads. The Department of Energy claims that by using proven mechanical parts and unused mine shafts, Green Gravity energy storage technology is inexpensive, durable and environmentally friendly.

For this project, a Framework Agreement on cooperation was signed with the Australian investor Green Gravity.

Another project that has recently entered the market is the replacement of coal from the Parosheni thermal power plant with biomass. In particular, for energy production, the plant will burn biomass instead of traditional coal. It was for this purpose that a memorandum was signed on Monday between the Ministry of Energy and the American company American Bio-Carbon Delaware LLC.

The project aims to convert the Paroşeni thermal power plant, located in the Jului Valley, to use biofuel produced by American Bio-Carbon from Romanian biomass. Energy Minister Sebastien Bourduilla claims that agricultural waste will be used.

Competition with mini-nuclear reactors

An innovative project in which Romania was involved is the NuScale project for the construction of small modular reactors (SMR). However, it just suffered a major setback: the project was canceled in the US on November 8. The mini-reactors were to be built in Utah, USA, in parallel with reactors in Deutschland, Romania, by the end of this decade. But NuScale and Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems agreed to cancel the US project, citing a 53 percent cost increase.

Signs of a possible failure have appeared since October, when the American company NuScale was accused of concluding a fake contract, which HotNews.ro wrote a lot about.

CEO of NuScale Power Corp. defended its small modular nuclear reactor business on Tuesday, saying work continued in the U.S. and two other countries, including Romania, after the company canceled construction of an SMR in Utah.

NuScale’s Romanian partner is Nuclearelectrica, which together with the private firm Nova Power & Gas has created a project company called RoPower. This project company is carrying out a FEED study as early as January 2023, which consists of a series of initial engineering and design works and studies, a technical analysis of the location of the former Doicesti plant, a schedule and cost estimate specific to the project in Romania.

These are not the only nuclear mini-reactors that the government is thinking about. On November 8, the same day that the NuScale project was canceled in the US, President Klaus Iohannis announced that he had signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Belgium for molten lead-cooled fast neutron reactor (LFR) technology.

This project (LFR) is actually based on the older, from 2011 – the ALFRED (Advanced Lead Fast Reactor Demonstrator) project, in which ANSALDO (Italy), the Institute for Nuclear Research (Romania) and ENEA (Italy) participated and aimed at the construction of a reactor 100 MWh lead-cooled fourth generation on the Mioveni platform.

For this new project, a Memorandum of Understanding was concluded between RATEN (Autonomous Directorate of Technologies for Nuclear Energy – from Mioveni, Arges), ANSALDO NUCLEARE SPA (from Genoa, Italy), ENEA (Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Economy). Development Sustainable), SCK CEN (Centre for Nuclear Energy Studies – from Mol, Belgium) and WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC COMPANY LLC (from Delaware, USA).

Of course, a design company is created, and then a feasibility study is made

Feasibility study of the 5000 MW cable and the eternal Tarnica-Lepusteşti

A week ago, Energy Minister Sebastien Burduya signed a memorandum of understanding in Budapest with the ministers of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Hungary regarding a grandiose project: the Green Corridor. It is about the construction of a direct current cable (HVDC), which should go from Azerbaijan to Hungary, crossing the whole of Romania.

System operators of four countries will create a project company. The technical and economic justification will be issued as soon as possible, according to the press release of the Ministry of Energy.

In Romania, the cable would have a length of 850 kilometers and would pass along the Tuzla-Podisor route and along the route of the Bulgaria-Romania-Hungary-Austria (BRUA) gas pipeline.

On the Romanian side, Transelectrica has recently announced that a feasibility study will be developed for this cable, and in this sense it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with TAQA, Meridiam, E-INFRA and Fluor.

Another technical and economic feasibility study, which will be assigned in the near future, is the eternal project of Tarnica – Lapusesti regarding the construction of a hydroelectric power station. The auction started at SICAP at the end of October. The cost of this new feasibility study is estimated at 3.5 million euros, and the study will last a maximum of 12 months.

The project subsequently benefited from several feasibility studies, which seven years ago were estimated to cost approximately €5 million.

How other “strategic” projects failed

In the last 10-15 years, Romania was involved in other megalomaniacal projects, which the authorities talked about with great enthusiasm, but over time they failed. One of them involved the construction of an underwater cable to transport electricity from Turkey to Romania. For several years in a row, it was considered a strategic project, until 2015 it was removed from state strategies due to the fact that it was not interested in investors at all.

In 2013, former energy minister Constantin Nice wanted to force Romanian state-owned companies such as Romgaz to invest in the project, even if it proved impossible, but Fondul Proprietatea and big financiers opposed it.

Another major failed strategic project was the Getica CCS carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and storage in Turceni. In 2011, it was valued at one billion euros. Gradually, it also turned out to be unfeasible and disappeared from government strategies.

There was also 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. Numerous meetings were held for this project at the ministerial level of the countries involved, but the project failed after it was demonstrated that it was not feasible.

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.