Bucharest Polytechnic University, Romania's largest engineering university, has sold EUR 1 million worth of electricity in the past three years on the local power exchange OPCOM.

The university has its own gas co-generation unit and solar panels that generate the electricity and heating for the university’s facilities. It sells the surplus electricity on OPCOM, the Romanian public television TVR reports.

Other potential clients of the university are the residential and office buildings around its campus.

The project started as the university was looking to generate its own electricity and heating. As such, it invested EUR 1.3 million in a gas co-generation unit, and now plans to further expand the production capacity, according to TVR.

The first solar panels were set up in 2006, by professors and students of the university, on the roof of the Electrical Engineering Faculty, Digi24 reported. In 2008, the Polytechnic University had another 216 solar panels installed as part of the EU project PVEnlargment 30, which gathered several European universities, according to Finantare.ro. The photo-voltaic unit received a EUR 180,000 Phare financing, according to the same source.

The Bucharest Polytechnic University is made up of 15 faculties, and enrolls 30,000 students each year.

Politehnica University in Bucharest wants to sell energy on Romanian power exchange OPCOM

editor@romania-insider.com