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Energy & Environment
Energy regulator: Four times more green certificates released this year than in 2007
Thursday, December 4, 2008
The number of green certificates released in 2008 will be four times higher than that registered in 2007, when 46,300 such documents were issued, the representative of the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) Georgeta Stanciulescu told a conference on energy issues. 'According to the new legislation in force, the number of green certificates released in 2008 will be fourfold the 46,300 certificates issued nationwide in 2007,' said the ANRE representative. The number of ...
EU clinches deal on CO2 emissions from cars
Thursday, December 4, 2008
A compromise agreement to reduce CO2 emissions from new vehicles was reached 1 December amid pressure from the car industry, which is currently being weighed down by the economic recession. EU lawmakers in the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament reached an agreement late Monday evening, paving the way for a final adoption of the proposal by the House before the end of the year. The agreement still needs to be approved by the Parliament's political groups and EU ambassadors. ...
Enlargement split in EU climate feud?
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Opposition from Poland and several of the bloc's newer member states to the energy and climate package has raised questions about the capacity of an enlarged EU to push through such ambitious policy agendas. The "fault line" of the EU's climate agenda is being drawn along its eastern borders, testing the ability of the enlarged union to realise its ambition of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2020, Michael Zammit Cutajar, former head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change ...
EU heads towards scaled-down climate ambitions
Thursday, December 4, 2008
The French EU Presidency is "putting everything on the table" in a "desperate" bid to agree on the climate and energy package before the end of the year, sources close to the negotiations told EurActiv.As part of its push to reach an agreement, France is putting forward a compromise that includes free emission rights for coal plants, financial compensation for energy-intensive industries and extensive use of third country emissions reductions to meet CO2 'effort sharing' ...
Sarkozy moves to enlist Eastern EU members on climate change
Thursday, December 4, 2008
French President and EU presidency holder Nicolas Sarkozy will this weekend make a dramatic attempt to obtain the agreement of the bloc's Eastern countries on the bloc's climate change package, ahead of a crucial EU summit on 11-12 December, sources told EurActiv.The meeting will take place over a lunch hosted by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in the Polish city of Gdansk on Saturday 6 December. The two leaders will be joined by the prime ministers of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, ...
Poznan kicks off as EU climate talks stumble
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Delegates from 186 nations are in Poznan, Poland to launch 12 days of talks designed to bring forward an international deal to tackle climate change. But the conference is currently overshadowed by an EU internal row over how to share the 'effort' of reducing CO2 emissions."Even if it is too early to expect major breakthroughs, the Poznan conference must shift gear from exploratory discussions to concrete negotiations," EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas stated on 28 November. There ...
FT: Romania among EU member states most likely to achieve community's renewable energy goals
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Romania, Finland and Sweden are the EU member states most likely to achieve their share of the EU renewable energy targets and even have spare renewable energy capacity to sell to their neighbors, British daily Financial Times reports on this Tuesday. According to a recent study by financial consultancy and audit firm Ernst & Young, Europe's renewable energy ambitions for the horizon of 2020, specifically that one fifth of the EU-produced energy be obtained from renewable sources, ...
Public-private partnership investments of 6bn euro this year for energy field
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Through state company Termoelectrica's signing a memorandum of understanding with Electrabel, controlled by GDF Suez, for an investment of 400 million euro, this year's public-private partnership investments in new electricity units total some 6bn euro, Ziarul financiar writes.The document about which the daily says it will be signed on Tuesday is the third memorandum of understanding between Termoelectrica and a foreign partner, as the state has recently started the project for ...
Romania excells in nuclear research field
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Among quality products Romania can boast with, in the world, is the heavy water produced by the Romanian Authority for Nuclear Activities (RAAN), reads Saptamana financiara. According to Romanian experts, RAAN-produced heavy water in Drobeta Turnu-Severin (south-east) is the best in the world at present from the quality point of view and their assessment is confirmed by tests carried out in Cernavoda and abroad, where a fifth of the output is exported.'ROMAG-PROD installations ...
Brown coal exports in 2009
Thursday, November 27, 2008
National Lignite Company Oltenia (SNLO) Targu-Jiu (center south-west) is to export next year more than one million tons of brown coal. SNLO Targu-Jiu spokesman Doru Strambulescu told on Wednesday to AGERPRES correspondent that the state company concluded a contract to deliver 1.25 million tons of lignite in 2009 to an European Union beneficiary, at present the coal transportation from the producing mining subunits to the customer being discussed.At the same time, the contracts with ...
Romania, only country in Central and South-East Europe with developed energy exchange
Thursday, November 27, 2008
The energy exchange activity is low in Central and South-East Europe, except for Romania, where OPCOM (operator of energy market) is operational and where a regional energy exchange could be opened, Nenad Stefanovic, representative of the Regulatory Authority in Serbia, told a Prague-held energy forum on this Wednesday.He added the countries in the area need new investments in the energy infrastructure, as most interconnection lines were built in the 1970s-1980s.'The energy demand ...
Investments in renewable energy solution for economic growth in times of crisis
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Investments to improve energy efficiency and develop renewable resources could support the economic growth during such times of crisis, Chairman with the Romanian Association for Preserving Energy (ARCE) Tudor Constantinescu told Business Standard on Tuesday.He also showed, on the occasion of an interview to the abovementioned daily, which are the benefits of such multiple investments, from the reduction of the import of energy resources and the diminishing of the impact on the ...
RWE: We've set no limit for investments in Romania
Thursday, November 27, 2008
German energy company RWE says it has no limit set for its investments in Romania, even in the context of the current financial crisis, also saying the local market is important for the Group's future plans, the head of the RWE division for wind energy for the Balkans and Turkey Frank Falkenhof told Business Standard on Monday.'We own enough liquidities, as we have pursued a conservative policy. We weren't affected as much as other companies were, which came to the situation not to ...
Chinese wind energy system implemented in Romania
Thursday, November 27, 2008
A revolutionary technology based on full permanent magnetic suspension puts out wind energy at a wind speed starting from 1.5 meterssec, much slower than that the other systems require, ranging between 2.5 and 3 meters per sec. The system belongs to Zkenergy Company and it has been its single distributor Vornado Energy Company that brought it to Romania The Chinese Company announced in 2006 a revolutionary wind energy system based on the principle of switching from a mechanical system, with ...
Project company to build units 3 and 4 of Cernavoda n-power plant to be established in March 2009
Thursday, November 27, 2008
The project company to carry out a project for the construction of reactors 3 and 4 at the Cernavoda nuclear-power plant will be set up in March 2009. On last Thursday, an investor's agreement was initialled for the establishment of EnergoNuclear SA, the project company, which will build, commission and operate units 3 and 4 of the Cernavoda n-power plant. Initialling the agreement were officials of the Nuclearelectrica National Corporation and six investors - ArcelorMittal, CEZ, GDF SUEZ, ...
Romania enters map of wind energy parks
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Romania has issued the first construction authorizations for a wind energy park. In ongoing construction, the park in Baia (east) is to be equipped with 14 wind turbines Nordex N90 of 2,5 MW, set to be finalized till the end of 2009. The 35 MW are to place Romania on Europe's wind energy map.'Under conditions in which competitiveness in the wind energy field showed an exploding growth in the past two years, in Romania, land finding and the getting of those more than 80 permits and ...
Fitch Ratings revises Rompetrol’s outlook to negative
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Fitch Ratings revised Rompetrol’s outlook to negative from stable, on weak operating cash flow and profitability in first nine months of 2008. The financial rating agency has also affirmed rating for long term foreign currency issuer default at ‘B+’.The outlook revision for the group is due to the low operating cash flow and profit margins reported for first nine months this year, high financial leverage, tight interest coverage and high short-term refinancing risks, in the context of weak ...
New Romanian geological storage facility seen built by 2055
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Romania might have a geological storage facility for used nuclear fuel by 2055, chairman of the National Agency for Radioactive Waste Gheorghe Ionita announced at a news conference on last Thursday. He explained the programme entails the conduct of an analysis and a survey and the selection of the host rock, which might be granite, clay, salt or schist.'We are looking for millions-of-years-old rocks. We must study the formation on site and the survey takes at least 20 to 30 years', Ionita ...
Energy giants to launch production in Romania
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Major European energy companies are willing to pay a total 3 billion euros to enter the Romanian electricity production market, to break up the state monopoly on this segment, daily Business Standard reports on Friday.The Czech CEZ giant has the largest investment plans for energy production, worth some 2 billion euros, according to data gathered by Business Standard. The group is involved in the construction of two new reactors at Romania's only nuclear plant, based in the ...
Romania exports 3.7 TWh energy units and imports 0.58 TWh in first 8 months
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Romania exported in the first eight months of the year 3.75 TWh energy units, 77.82 percent higher than in the similar period of last year.As well, over the mentioned period, electricity imports totalled 0.58 TWh, a reduction of 42.58 percent compared to January-August 2007, according to the data published by the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE ). Electricity production at the national level increased by 9.24 percent in the first eight months as against the same period of last ...