People started to realize importance of energy efficiency projects, economy minister

The launch of power production from alternative sources can be considered a positive economic event of 2012, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Valeriu Lazar said in an Info-Prim Neo interview of the series “Year 2012 in Moldova’s and Moldovans”, {which was published on December 14}. “In the last meetings of the Government, there were approved all the normative documents needed to run the Energy Efficiency Fund (EEF). Meanwhile, we asked the district to name energy managers, by one in every district and town. These persons were employed, with small exceptions. Training seminars are now held for them. The Energy Efficiency Agency is organizing different information seminars. We thus anticipate the launch of energy efficiency projects that will be financed from the EEF,” said Valeriu Lazar. The 100 million lei allocated to the fund this year will be transferred in 2013 as the EEF is a revolving fund, plus the 160 million lei that will be allocated next year. It is a significant sum. The Energy Efficiency Agency is now collecting projects. Initially, the deadline was November 27, but it will be extended until February. He also said that the private sector is ahead of the public sector because they did not wait for money from the EEF, but applied for energy efficiency programs financed by the EBRD and other donors. Within the €14million Energy and Biomass Project, we equipped a part of the public institutions with biomass-heating systems. The private sector received the signal and bought boilers from their own money, intuiting that the demand will go up. The people started to realize the importance of energy efficiency projects. The EBRD financed a number of energy efficiency projects that can ultimately lead to reductions of 20-30% or even 40% in the energy bills. “The objective is to increase production of energy from alternative sources to 20% of consumption by 2020. We hope to obtain another 20% from the implementation of energy efficiency projects,” said the official. The interview with Valeriu Lazar continues the series of 12 Info-Prim Neo interviews “Year 2012 in Moldova’s and Moldovans’ life”. Until now, their opinions about the performance of the passing year were stated by Prime Minister Vlad Filat, the Communist leader Vladimir Voronin, and OSCE Mission Head Jennifer Brush. The next interviews will be with Minister of Justice Oleg Efrim, Mayor of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca, Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Vasile Bumacov, and others