Energy and Biomass Project unveiled in European Parliament

Chisinau, 8 December /MOLDPRES/ - The Energy and Biomass Project, financed by the European Union and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP Moldova), has been presented in the European Parliament (EP).Three states of the Eastern Partnership – Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia – have been invited to share with the European MPs the impact of EU’s investments in the development of the concerned states.   

Launched in 2011, the Energy and Biomass Project has managed, with investments backed by the European Union, to connect over 190 schools, kindergartens, community centres, hospitals to heating systems on biomass and thus provided more than 140,000 people with access to safe energy produced in Moldova.

A press release by UNDP Moldova, issued today, reads that the Carpineni village, central Hincesti district, was chosen as example of beneficiary of the Energy and Biomass Project; the model of this settlement was unveiled as a success story in the European Parliament. Heating systems on biomass were set at the Carpineni kindergarten and school with European funds in 2012. During the next years, the community switched, with other funds, another four public institutions to the heating on biomass: the mayoralty, house of culture, another schools and a family physicians’ centre.   

 “In the past, these institutions used to be heated on coal at improvised stoves. Corridors remained unheated, and children were often falling sick with acute respiratory diseases. Due to the new system of heating on biomass, all the rooms are heated and children no longer have to breath coal smoke,” the Carpineni mayor, Ion Carpineanu, said, attending the event.      

The Energy and Biomass Project laid the foundations for developing the bio-energy sector in Moldova, which was at its beginning five years ago. The number of institutions consuming bio-energy led to an increase in the businesses of producing briquettes and pellets, which amount to 100. A number of 30 new businesses of this kind from the bio-energy system were launched through attractive mechanisms of leasing, developed with European funds by the Energy and Biomass Project. Also, 1,000 families heat their homes with green energy, due to subsidies worth up to 1,300 euros provided from European money.   

The Energy and Biomass Project in Moldova is a seven-year project, in two phases, carried out in 2011-2017. The project is set to contribute to a safe, competitive and sustainable production of energy from biomass - the most viable and accessible source of renewable energy in Moldova. In only five years, the consumption of renewable energy locally got to account for 13 per cent of the overall consumption in Moldova, mostly due to biomass. Till 2020, the share of energy from renewable resources consumed in Moldova is scheduled to reach 17 per cent.  

(Reporter V. Bercu, editor M. Jantovan)