The pupils in the gymnasium of Bratuleni village of Nisporeni district have enjoyed a better thermal comfort at school for three winters already, and, since this year, the community kindergarten will have a biomass heating plant and will be provided with hot tap water produced by solar collectors. They were installed with the financial support of the European Union in the framework of the Energy and Biomass Project. The grant amounted to over €163,000, and the community allocated a contribution of 600,000 lei for the reparation of the heating system and the installation of the energy efficient windows.
About 70 tonnes of pellets are used during one heating season and the school purchases them from a trader in Ungheni. Resources from the community budget will be allocated this year for replacing the windows in the gymnasium’s corridors in order to reduce the heat loss. The mayor Nicolae Chercheja said as a result of using the locally produced renewable energy, the community and the region are developing, while the money paid for the biofuel remains in the country and helps it to develop step by step. “The investments made by the European Union in the installation of the environment-friendly heating systems helped us to make this change. Thanks to the European funds, the school and the kindergarten have become energy independent,” said Nicolae Chercheja.
The District Council of Nisporeni decided to install biomass heating plants in four other communities within a public-private partnership. The District Council has launched a competition to select the private partner that will install the new biomass boilers in schools and will take over the management of the three heating plants already operating in the schools of Bratuleni, Soltanesti and Varzaresti.
The Energy and Biomass Project, Phase II, is a three-year project conducted during 2015-2017. The project has a total budget of €9.41 million granted by the European Union and it is implemented by the United Nations Development Program. It continues the first phase of the project, implemented in 2011-2014, with a total budget of €14.56 million offered by the European Union (€14 million) and UNDP (€560,000).
