Szijjarto: Growth hinges on nuclear and solar industry, car industry transition

Speaking at a meeting of the Partnership for Transatlantic Energy and Climate Cooperation (P-TECC), Peter Szijjarto said the goals stemmed from the government’s commitment to making Hungary carbon neutral by 2050.

It is also committed to making up to 90 percent of the country’s energy production sustainable and carbon dioxide free by 2030, Szijjarto said, according to a ministry statement.

He lamented the “ideologically motivated debates” on the matter of nuclear energy but welcomed that the majority of EU member states and the US “can work together as pro-nuclear countries”.

With the upgrade currently under way, the capacity of Hungary’s nuclear power plant at Paks is going to increase to 4,400 MW from 2,000 MW, and will provide some 70 percent of the country’s energy demand, he said. The two new blocks will enable Hungary to decrease the emmission of carbon dioxide by 17 million tonnes, and to cut its gas imports by 2.5-3 billion cubic meters annually, he said.

The new blocks will provide “safe and carbon neutral supply of electricity” for 1.8 million households, he said.

Meanwhile, the investment will create some 3,000 jobs directly and another 11,000 indirectly. The construction and operation will boost Hungary’s GDP by 50-65 billion dollars over 60 years, he said.

Regarding solar energy, Szijjarto told the panel discussion that Hungary increased its capacity eight-fold in the past five years, to 6,700 MWs. That constitutes 47 percent of the country’s total power plant capacity, he said.

Regarding the automotive industry, Szijjarto said Hungary was home to manufacturing sites of all three premium German carmakers, and five of the largest battery producers for e-cars.

Szijjarto noted that environmental and climate goals could not be achieved without the car industry’s transition to electric vehicles.

Those two branches are cooperating tightly, he said. “German electric cars [are] running on Chinese batteries. This is the reality.”

Hungary is currently the fourth largest e-battery producer in the world, and will leap to 2nd place once the investments under way are completed, he said.

Regarding gas and crude supplies, he said supply purchases were determined by infrastructure, and so “it is based on a physical reality”, rather than a political issue. Hungary “would be very happy” to diversify its supplies, but it would need alternative routes to do so, he said. Hungary and Slovakia earlier turned to the European Commission, requesting to increase the capacity of the Croatian delivery route, but that came to nothing as “Zagreb increased transit fees five times,” Szijjarto said.

Meanwhile, Hungary started importing gas from Azerbaijan earlier this year, and is the first non-neighbouring country to buy gas from Turkiye.

Hungary was one of a group of countries that turned to the EC to increase the capacity of that pipeline, but the EC rejected the plea to financially support the development, he said.