The transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy is a path of no return, from which neither the European Union as a whole, nor Romania as a member state, will deviate.

The main goal is to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, which will be achieved even if adjustments caused by external conditions are made along the way.

This is a general conclusion “Energy Forum – Transition from black gold to green energy“, the final seminar of the program “Energy literacy for an efficient and sustainable Romania. Transversal knowledge transfer and awareness raising between Romania and Norway”.

The project was carried out by Freedom House Romania in partnership with Norsk Energi, De-a Arhitectura and Cult Research.

“Energy Forum» took place on March 14. at the headquarters of the Representation of the European Commission in Romania.

The Green Deal, a crisis-tested priority

He opened the discussion in which 11 expert speakers from 11 organizations and companies took part Mara RomanDeputy Head of the Representation of the European Commission in Romania.

Mara Roman noted that the EU and its member states will not deviate from the path to climate neutrality, especially since this goal is also included in European climate legislation.

“A legal goal that the European Union will continue to pursue. An ambitious goal. (…) The Green Deal is the most difficult priority of the European Commission, which has also passed the greatest test in recent years with all the crises we have gone through, the COVID-19 crisis, the war in Ukraine, as well as the energy crisis with all its social costs,” – said Mara Roman.

The debate was opened by Cristina Guset, director of Freedom House Romania, who noted that environmental journalism in Romania is extremely limited, but its development is necessary.

“The idea of ​​this project was to unite, from different fields, all those who may be interested in the environment.

We have involved central and local authorities, from education, we will develop manuals for junior and senior classes, sociologists, journalists and businessmen.

We organized two eco-camps, in the city hall of sector 6 and Ciugud, a study trip to Oslo, where we were hosted by our partner from Norway, Norsk Energi, and a wide media campaign,” said Christina Huset.

Romania and Norway have a lot in common

He was also present at the event Serhiy Fashchevskyisenior consultant of Norsk Energi, the Norwegian partner of the ELES project.

“We had extraordinary cooperation in activities with our partners in Romania. I’m sorry I haven’t learned Romanian yet, I know a few cousins, but I had a really good time in Romania and with Romanian partners.

We are practitioners, those who implement policy. During our discussions in Oslo, Čugud and Bucharest, we found many common elements between Norway and Romania.

We share the desire to implement more ecologically clean energy sources for the benefit of society,” said Serhii Fascheschy.

He also participated in the “Energy Forum”. Olena PopescuDeputy General Director of the Ministry of Energy, who showed that the new policy on green energy involves a transition to a different way of life, as well as to a new way of thinking for both consumers and state authorities.

“We have to move to a different lifestyle as consumers, but also to a different way of thinking as energy authorities. Energy policy affects all sectors of the economy.

This is confirmed by the new Renewable Energy Directive, which sets an ambitious quota to increase the use of renewable energy sources in EU member states, as well as clear quotas and targets for the most affected sectors, such as the industrial sector. “, – said Olena Popescu.

How Romanians perceive energy efficiency

“Within the framework of this project, we conducted a study of Romanians’ perception of energy efficiency on a representative sample, a quantitative and qualitative study.

We aimed to see the level of knowledge and associations regarding energy efficiency, consumption practices and programs followed by the Romanian state and known to Romanians,” he said. Alexander Zodierfrom Cult Research, a partner of the ELES project.

De-a Arhitectura conducted a sustainable development education program as part of the “Green Week” program in schools in Romania.

“We brought an educational component to the project, which we thought about in connection with the Green Week in schools. Although when we wrote the grant application together with Freedom House Romania, Green Week was only a planned action in the strategy, we realized that more needs to be done.

We are talking not only about ecology, but also about sustainability, which involves not only environmental protection, but also economic development in accordance with environmental protection,” he said. Vera Marinteacher for students of the University of Architecture “Ion Minku” in Bucharest, as well as for children and adults within the projects implemented by De-a Arhitectura.

Dan Dumitruwho was also the moderator of the event and the speaker, presented the invention of Allspark Energy, the company he heads: a compact battery, developed 100% in Romania, which allows you to connect to any power source from 1 to 150 kilowatts, charge electric cars, but also store energy for a long time.

Future directions of green energy

The “Energy Forum” was held in two panels. The second panel titled “The transition from fossil to green: how we combine gas and nuclear power, how we modernize the transport system and how we work with consumers“, was dedicated to Romanian specialists in this field.

According to him, solar and wind energy are not free Silvia Vlaschanuexecutive director of the Association of Electricity Producers (HENRO).

“In the context of the increase in the number of prosumers, we should also talk about storage. From now on, the state should no longer accept funding for projects without storage solutions. I speak from my point of view as an engineer with a technical education,” said the specialist.

OMV Petrom, a partner of the event, announced that it will allocate 35% of its investment in renewable energy.

“We have several main directions we are moving towards, namely the transition to products with low or even zero carbon emissions and the development of natural gas production capacities to ensure the necessary flexibility of energy consumption at the level of Romania,” said Catalin Hristescu, director of management of the gas and energy portfolio of OMV Petrom.

Solutions for individuals and small and medium-sized businesses

Even individual people adapt to changes in the energy field. A solution that works in Europe and is also adopted in Romania is the energy cooperative.

“Romania is analyzing models from Greece and Portugal, which work in this way: a microgrid is created with quantitative energy compensation through an electricity supplier to which all participants are connected. The condition is to be outside the transformation point, the last part of the local network.

The big advantage is that this quantitative compensation is done without paying distribution tariffs, since almost half of the electricity bill comes from these tariffs.

So, in energy communities, people share energy with each other without distribution tariffs,” he explained Bohdan StroyePresident of the Energy Cooperative.

Ana Maria Ikatauvice-president of the Organization of Women Entrepreneurs OFA from UGIR, presented six program proposals for increasing the energy efficiency of SMEs in Romania within the framework of the Energy Forum.

“In vain, we fill the market with financing for SMEs, regarding energy independence and ensuring the technological consumption of electricity from renewable sources, if the level of information about what energy efficiency is is very low.

No one went to the entrepreneurs to teach them. It must be done,” said Ana Maria Ikatau “Energy Forum – Transition from black gold to green energy“

Partners:OMV, Energy Cooperative

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