Over the next three years, the Moldovan Residential Energy Efficiency Fund (MREEF) will have a budget of at least 723 million lei. According to a Government decision, the money is to be collected from enterprises operating in the energy sector. The initiative refers to the Energy Efficiency Obligations Scheme that will take effect starting with 2024, IPN reports.
The Ministry of Energy said that in addition to the amounts collected from economic agents, the annual budget of the MREEF will be doubled from contributions of development partners and international financial organizations. The Residential Energy Efficiency Fund will be managed by the National Center for Sustainable Energy, the successor to the Energy Efficiency Agency.
The MREEF will provide non-reimbursable financing of to 70% of the total costs necessary to carry out energy efficiency measures and optimize the use of renewable energy sources in the residential sector. The rest will be ensured with the contribution of dwellers. The objective of the Fund is to annually renovate a heated area of at least 155,000 square meters in apartment buildings and 56,000 square meters in individual houses and to this way reduce the consumption of energy resources by at least 30% of the value of consumption under normed conditions in residential sector buildings benefiting from financing programs.
“Over 70% of apartment buildings in Moldova have a low level of energy efficiency and the population pays energy losses through bills. Therefore, instead of compensation for energy, which is a necessary anti-crisis measure, we aim to reduce consumption through energy efficiency of homes. Calculations show that medium-level renovation of buildings – thermal insulation of external walls, roof, basement, replacement of energy-inefficient windows and doors with energy-efficient ones, regulation of thermal energy consumption and improvement of the lighting system – can generate savings of about 45% of the consumed energy,” said Minister of Energy Victor Parlicov.
Some 75% of the MREEF resources will be used to modernize apartment buildings and criteria for selecting these will be agreed based on the level of energy losses, energy vulnerability of consumers, availability of own contribution, etc. For 2024, 25 associations of dwellers have already been selected to benefit from the necessary energy efficiency measures in their blocks.
According to the Ministry of Energy, the value of energy efficiency obligations will not significantly influence the final charges and will be of about 0.01 lei per kWh of electricity, 0.05 lei per m3 of natural gas, 0.1 and 0.11 lei per liter of gasoline and, respectively, diesel fuel and 15 lei for one Gcal of heat energy.
