Romania will gradually shut down its entire 4.59GW coal-fired power plants by the end of 2032 under a frontload schedule, according to the recovery and resilience plan (PNRR) sealed with the European Commission.

Romania has become the 19th European country to formalise plans to exit coal, announced Europe Beyond Coal (EBC) - an alliance of civil society groups working to catalyse the closures of coal mines and power plants.

"With only 810 MW of coal planned to remain in the system between 2026 and 2032, we're confident that Romania will very quickly discover the massive benefits a clean, renewable energy-based economy brings with it and will redouble its effort to exit coal this decade," the alliance's statement reads.

EBC uses the opportunity to recommend countries like Poland, Czech Republic and Germany to follow the example and phase out hard coal and lignite power generation.

Nevertheless, giving up the coal is far from being smooth and straightforward or a done deal in Romania. The sharp rise in electricity prices faced by Romania this year is partly due to scarce generation capacities (conventional or renewable), and the commitments put even more pressure on the deficit hence prices.

Most of the capacity (3.78GW) will be closed by the end of 2023, according to the data included in the PNRR, quoted by Economica.net. Under the schedule, Romania pledged to shut down units with a total capacity of nearly 1.70GW this year.

The capacity left in place after the end of 2025 (0.8GW) is the equivalent of three large groups of Oltenia Energy Complex (probably the entire Rovinari power plant), which, according to sources consulted by Economica.net, will be maintained as a strategic reserve at the disposal of the national energy dispatch.

To substitute the coal-fired plants, Romania will invest in new gas-fired power plants with a capacity of 1.3GW by the end of 2025. 

The new renewable capacities will reach at least 3GW by mid-2026, out of which 2GW is to be completed by the end-2025, according to the PNRR.

Currently, Romania has a total installed capacity of 3GW in wind farms and almost 1.4GW in solar power plants.

Under a schedule sketched by 2030, the country plans to add 6.9 GW of new renewable energy capacity before 2030. More than 3.7 GW of that capacity is projected to be solar projects.

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Johannes Mattern/Dreamstime.com)