Overview
This project enabled greenhouse gas emission reduction as a result of energy efficiency improvements and fuel switching measures for a number of public buildings (kindergartens, schools, vocational schools, hospitals, polyclinics, etc.). Its goal was to generate an added value to Moldova Social Investment Fund (SIF) II Project, through greenhouse gas emissions reduction benefits for the SIF project participants, thus creating incentives for further implementation of greenhouse gas mitigation measures. The use of carbon values served as a catalyst for implementing clean heat production technologies in rural areas.
This project represented a bundle of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) small-scale project activities and referred to installation of new heating systems for a series of public buildings in rural area, as well as rehabilitation measures related to the respective buildings. The implemented project activities were technologically independent, stand-alone and spread out all over the country.
Benefits
Within the project activities boundaries, the pillars of sustainable development have been upheld. For this particular energy project, designed to address rehabilitation and upgrade of the deteriorated heating systems of public buildings, these pillars included economic efficiency, social equity, environmental and technological sustainability.
Economic benefits: The project led to a decrease in the cost of unit heat production.
Social benefits: The project allowed decreasing payment burden for consumed energy resources and increasing local employment. Besides it, the project improved the living and activity conditions within the considered public buildings through:
- increased availability of heating service for considered buildings;
- normalization of room heating temperature;
- increased duration of heating period;
- making hot water available and affordable in such buildings like schools, orphanages, etc.
Environmental benefits: Conventional coal-burning boiler houses create massive pollution; they represent one of the largest sources of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Heat and power production is responsible for large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and mercury emissions (Hg). These four pollutants are the major cause of severe environmental problems, including acid rain, smog, respiratory illness, mercury contamination, and global warming. In this project, coal was substantially substituted by natural gas.
Technological benefits: The project implied more advanced technologies for heat production based on the use of coal and natural gas.
Documents and project details
Technical documents related to the carbon standard can be found here, Project Design Document No. 1, Project Design Document No. 2.
Details on project preparation and implementation can be found here.