Twenty-three villages from the districts of Glodeni, Donduseni, Soroca and Rascani will connect their public institutions to heating systems based on agricultural waste, especially straw, from next winter. The biggest part of the costs incurred for the installation of the heating systems shall be covered by the Energy and Biomass Project, while the community will contribute with at least 15% of the total costs, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting a press release from the project. Thirty public institutions will be connected to biomass-based heating systems. Most of these institutions will be heated with straw bales. The energy produced from biomass has a lot of benefits. It reduced dependency on imports, increases energy security, has lower costs, and allows for new business development and job creation. Besides, the energy from renewable sources reduces greenhouse gas emissions and environment pollution, said Nicolae Zaharia, specialist in business development within the Energy and Biomass Project Glodeni, Donduseni, Soroca and Rascani are the first four districts where the Energy and Biomass Project launched its activities in 2012. In 2011, the first year of the project implementation, 35 villages from 8 districts of Moldova (Stefan Voda, Leova, Cantemir, Hancesti, Telenesti, Sangerei, Falesti, and ATU Gagauz Yeri) started up projects for installing biomass-based heating systems in schools, kindergartens, and health centers with the project’s financial project. As a result, 42 public buildings will be heated with biomass-based energy, over 18,000 persons, of which 8,542 children will benefit directly from the new energy source. By 2014, over 130 rural communities will have sound and sustainable systems of biomass-based energy supply, with potential to be replicated in the whole country. The local energy security and the thermal comfort of many schools, kindergartens, health and community centers will be increased. At the same time, new jobs will be created as a result of establishing new distribution channels for biomass-based fuel at local level, thus contributing to ensuring new income sources and reducing poverty in rural areas. Until the end of this year, the project will cover another nine districts - Floresti, Anenii Noi, Orhei, Rezina, Soldanesti, Ungheni, Basarabeasca, Cimislia, and Cahul. Moldova Energy and Biomass Project will be implemented over a period of 4 years during 2011-2014. The project total budget is €14.56 million, granted by European Union (€14 million) and UNDP Moldova (€560,000).