Moldova made progress in production of wind energy

Moldelectrica has contracts to connect to its network facilities able to produce 700 megawatts of wind energy, communicated Vladimir Berzan, head of the Moldovan Academy of Sciences' Institute of Energetics, in an interview for Radio Moldova, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. “When these facilities are installed, there will be problems with equilibrating the power of the system. For example, we must know where to transport the excess of energy, if there are windier days during certain months. Should we, or should we not build power plants that could be stopped rapidly, or will we sign contracts with neighboring countries in order to sell this potential energy surplus? There are things to be sorted out”, said the specialist. According to Vladimir Berzan, the expenses for balancing the power might be higher than for importing energy. It is important to see how these expenses will affect the bill of the final consumer. “Putting to use the experiences of Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria, and other countries from the region, as well as international experience in the field of energy production from renewable sources will help us avoid potential errors”, said Vladimir Berzan. In his opinion, the experience exchange during the “Moldovan Energetics 2012: regional development aspects”, which took place last week, in Chisinau, was beneficial in this sense. “The Institute of Energetics signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Romanian Institute of Studies and Projects in Energetics at the end of the conference. Production of energy from renewable sources is one of those fields of cooperation”, pointed out the director of the ASM's Institute of Energetics. Ion Sobor, a lecturer at the Technical University of Moldova, said, referring to a recent study by the Ministry of Economy, that the production of a wind power facility of 200 megawatts will have a great impact on the prices for final consumers in the following years. “Moldova, however, will profit greatly in terms of ensuring energy security. It will be locally produced energy, not imported. Moreover, there is the global issue of ecologically clean production”. Moldova aims at increasing the production of energy from renewable sources to the rate of 20% from the total consumption of energy, by 2020.