Details of major green energy development tenders announced

Gábor Czepek, Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of Energy (EM), and Attila Steiner, EM's State Secretary for Energy, made the announcement on Thursday in Miskolc and Kiskunhalas, respectively.

Capacity to double

Within the broader Jedlik Ányos Energy Programme announced in March, the government is launching a HUF 40 billion programme to support biogas and biomethane production, Gábor Czepek announced on Thursday in Miskolc, in his presentation at the Rural Conference.

The Parliamentary State Secretary said that the aim of the programme is to double the volume of biogas production in Hungary from the current capacity of 200 million cubic metres, thus helping to reduce the country's dependence on energy imports. He added that the tender will be a programme with a maximum subsidy intensity of sixty-five percent, and that comments from professional organisations are expected from Thursday.

Applications for the programme to support biogas production are expected to be open in June and July, the State Secretary said.

The country could save hundreds of millions of cubic metres of natural gas

Attila Steiner reported in Kiskunhalas that the government is supporting geothermal projects with a tender package of approximately HUF 70 billion.

Speaking at the opening event of the geothermal heating modernisation project of the Bundzsák Dezső Municipal Sports Centre in kiskunhalas, the State Secretary for Energy said that the aim of the tendering opportunities is to replace as much natural gas consumption as possible in Hungary in the long term.

He stressed that currently the natural gas exposure of the district heating sector is extremely high, more than 70 percent, and the government aims to reduce it to 40-50 percent, which alone could save the country hundreds of millions of cubic meters of natural gas.

The development of the sports centre will be carried out by MS Energy Solutions Kft. with approximately 251 million forints in funding. The amount was awarded under the Swiss Fund's „Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Sources Thematic Area, SM06-GEO” call for proposals for investments totalling more than HUF 300 million, as reported by halasmedia.hu in its article reports.