Kindergarten in Ermoclia heated by straw

The kindergarten in Ermoclia, Stefan Voda, is the first education institution heated by energy produced from agricultural waste. For several days, the 170 children of the kindergarten have played in rooms heated by biomass. “We have the same temperature as when we heated the kindergarten by gas. The only difference is the twice lower prices,” said the kindergarten’s head Svetlana Shargarovski, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. According to a communiqué from the Energy and Biomass Project, the kindergarten received about 1 million lei in financial support from the project for installing the biomass hearting system. The community invested 426,000 lei. This money was used to build a packed straw storehouse and to put thermopan windows and doors. “The kindergarten in Ermoclia is one of the 43 public institutions from the eight districts of Moldova that were selected in 2011 for installing biomass heating systems within the Energy and Biomass Project. In 2012, 12 new districts of Moldova will be able to heat the schools, kindergartens and community centers with energy from biomass. Until 2014, at least 130 rural public institutions from all the districts of the country will be heated by locally sourced energy,” said Kaarina Immonen, UNDP Permanent Representative in Moldova. About 700,000 tonnes of straw remain unused in the fields every year. The Head of the EU Delegation to Moldova Dirk Schuebel said that Europe and Moldova share the conviction that the people need safe sources of energy at reasonable prices. That’s why the EU policies center on the creation of a competitive internal market in proving services of a high quality at accessible prices, in developing renewable sources of energy and in promoting energy efficiency measures. The four-year Energy and Biomass Project in Moldova is implemented over 2011-2014. The total budget of the project is €14.56 million, provided by the EU and UNDP Moldova.