Although in the world of business, struggles and minor setbacks do occur as they constitute part of the journey, so far, thanks to our team and leadership, we've managed to remain focused on our goals of expansion outside Romania, whilst keeping a firm grasp on our position as a top supplier within our country. Recently we have further secured it by signing a gas contract with one of the most distinguished gas distributors in the country, ENGIE Romania.

Our next order of business is to capitalize upon already established parameters in order to permeate the Hungarian energy market. We've done our homework thoroughly and, as veteran readers will remember, we have already taken important steps for Balkan expansion by partnering with First Biogas International AG (FBI AG) in order to ease market penetration. This has proven invaluable, as we have now managed to officially register “Restart Energy KFT” in Budapest, Hungary.

Hungary represents the newest challenge in Restart Energy’s quest for expansion, and its unique energy sector will benefit greatly from our affordable award-winning energy packs.

Energy Market Overview

In 2016, Hungary’s total primary energy supply (TPES) was 25.6 Mtoe, with 12% coming from renewable sources, while the mainstay of the sector remained fossil fuels; with oil, gas, and coal accounting for approximately two-thirds of fossil fuels. In the same year, domestic energy production reached 31.8 TWh — with 11% coming from renewables (biofuels & waste 7%, wind 2%, solar 1%, hydro 1%), while over half came from nuclear energy sources (more than twice the size of coal production).

Nuclear

(51% of production in 2016)

All nuclear energy generation in Hungary comes from the Paks Nuclear Power Plant, situated in the south-central county of Tolna, near the town of Paks, that services around 40% of the total energy consumption of the country. It has been in use since 1982 and recent government-mandated refurbishments/replacements have extended its lifetime until 2036 (each of its four reactors has an independent expiry date, starting from 2032). There are also plans of adding two further reactors — one in 2018 and the second in 2020 — increasing its current 2,000 MW of energy generation by a further 2,200 MW.

Imports

Another important aspect to be considered about Hungary’s energy landscape is its reliance on imports to cover the vast majority of its natural gas (~85% in 2016) and crude oil (~90% in 2016) needs. This is especially noteworthy as both represent important energy sources — natural gas being the second-largest and oil the third-largest contributor to the country’s TPES, after nuclear.

Additionally, Hungary also imported roughly 19.9 TWh of electricity in 2016, while exporting 6.2 TWh; resulting in 13.7 TWh net electricity imports. These numbers could present an exciting opportunity for more renewable sources to be installed in the near future, given how they are considerably more affordable now and given the fact that prices have continued to decrease, as technological advances and mass-production drive these further down.

Renewables & the METAR system

It is noteworthy that in the last decade the energy sector worldwide has experienced a large boom, especially in the renewable energy department. Hungary has not been an exception to this worldwide trend, and has introduced regulations to ease, advance, and accelerate investments in renewable energy — in an effort to increase its share within the energy market. Ideally, bringing renewables to a point where they can compete with fossil fuels on the open market.

Efforts have been made to incentivize development and investment in renewable energy through a new renewable support scheme called METAR (“Megújuló Támogatási Rendszer”), which started on January 1st, 2017. METAR provides operational support for the production of electricity from renewable sources, divided into three brackets: under 0.5 MW, between 0.5 and 1 MW, and over 1 MW. METAR-funded grants are given to beneficiaries typically after being selected from applications by the National Development minister.

Both renewable producers under 0.5 MW and those between 0.5 & 1 MW are able to participate in the system without taking part in a tender, while those above 1 MW are required to take part in tenders. Producers under 0.5 MW are required to feed electricity into the grid, in order to receive a statutory price for their energy.

Power plants over 0.5 MW benefit from the ‘green premium system’ and do not receive a statutory price for their energy — instead, they are paid both market price for their energy, as well as a flexible renewable energy premium, paid by the grid operator.

The program has enjoyed a period of great success so far, without showing signs of fatigue, as more than 200 METAR applications have been received since its inception. Unsurprisingly, most of them were solar power plants belonging to the under 0.5 MW bracket, given Hungary’s geography and location — having a combined capacity of over 100 MW.

What follows is a breakdown of the most important renewables within the country, listed by energy production percentage:

Biofuels & waste

(7% of production in 2016)

Due to the vast plains of Pannonia, agriculture has a long-standing tradition within Hungary, while also benefiting from modern advances within the field. Large tracts of land are farmed throughout the country and these produce equally vast quantities of biomass waste, which can be used to produce, among other things, electricity. With this in mind, it comes as no surprise that the country relies on the development of this particular renewable energy sector; being expected to be the fastest-growing renewable source within its borders. A healthy number of new biomass power plants are scheduled for construction within the countryside and will be used for power generation as well as a substantial heating source, according to its Environmental and Energy Efficiency Plan.

Our partners at First Biogas International AG, through First Biogas Eastern Europe Kft., have a particularly strong presence within Hungary’s biomass sector — owning and operating one of the largest straw digestion facilities within the entire Carpathian Basin.

Work visit at the Kerekegyhaza Biogas Plant in Hungary, with our partner Daniel Ruch (right) from FBI AG.

Wind

(2% of production in 2016)

Progress in this sector has virtually been halted to a standstill, after a massive surge of hundreds of wind turbine installations that occurred between 2000 and 2010. Following these, the government issued regulations that restrict new turbines from being installed within a 12 km radius of populated areas — effectively banning new wind installations country-wide. To further cement Hungary’s no-wind-turbine stance, in 2016 the Hungarian government stated that it has no plans of installing wind turbines within the country moving forward.

Still, the already-present wind turbines possess a combined installed capacity of 330 MW, yet very few if any are running at capacity, resulting in eolian power contributing only 2% of the country’s total energy output.

Solar

(1% of production in 2016)

Hungary possesses a geographical predisposition for this type of renewable energy, given that the average annual sum for its horizontal irradiation is roughly between 1,200 and 1,300 KWh/m², depending on the region. Furthermore, only a small percentage of its solar potential is currently being utilized, leaving significant room for growth and improvement within this sector.

In a public statement, an investment company has made arrangements to purchase the rights to develop three photovoltaic projects within Hungary, representing a total of 57 MW of solar installed capacity. Now under development, these are located in the western and northeastern parts of the country, having capacities of 17.58 MW, 14.74 MW, and 25.1 MW, respectively.

Hydropower

(1% of production in 2016)

Although for the solar segment, Hungary’s geographical positioning works to its advantage, the same cannot be said about hydropower plants. Unfortunately, there are few opportunities for expansion, as most of the hydropower sources have already been tapped into; this sector has nearly hit its peak. Even so, it bears mention that Hungary’s Energy Efficiency Plan is looking to innovate within the sector, by installing smaller turbines in rivers.

About Restart Energy

Restart Energy Democracy (RED) is a blockchain-powered platform, backed by Restart Energy — a European energy provider with 20 million USD in revenues. The company was built with a vision to democratize the energy sector and quash the dominance of legacy monopolies in the energy world. The company’s credentials include a customer base of 27,000 household and 3,000 corporate clients, expanding at more than 2,000 clients per month (5,000 new customers in the first two months of 2018), and its impressive growth: 1700% from 2015 until today.

Restart Energy is developing the world’s first peer-to-peer, fully decentralized energy transfer platform allowing users to send and receive energy worldwide, based on its proprietary virtual balancing system, that uses A.I., Big Data, and IoT technologies. The RED ecosystem is comprised of the RED-Platform, RED-Franchise and RED-MWAT Tokens.

The RED-Franchise is the first power retail franchise to simplify and allow any company or entrepreneur to operate their own power utility enterprise, enabling them to start selling energy in more than 35 deregulated energy markets globally.

MWAT tokens are crypto-tokens that enable the buying and selling of up to 1 MWh of electricity per month on the RED-Platform Software and will facilitate the development of affordable clean energy, through free-market practices. Upon completion of registration on the platform, an initial loyalty bonus of 0.11 kWh is applied. Producers send out monthly loyalty bonuses through the RED Loyalty System, totaling 1–5% of traded on-grid energy in exchange for access to the RED Platform.

Importantly, it should be noted that potential franchise partners will need to own (this is not a form of payment to us) a certain number of MWAT tokens, in order to qualify for our various franchise tiers — the secret to our award-winning growth as a business!

For more information, please visit our website, our Telegram, and read the Restart Energy whitepaper. Join our announcement channel for updates regarding Restart Energy Democracy.