Renewables as important energy source for Moldova

Moldova is located in the south-eastern region of Europe and covers an area of approximately 34 000 km². The Moldova territory extends from north to south on a distance of 350 km, from west to east - 150 km. The land Fund of Moldova is 3 384,6 thousand ha, including 2 028,3 thousand ha with agricultural destination. The territory with agricultural destination has next distribution: 73,1% for plough lands, 11,5% for perennial plantations, 13,8% for hayfields and pastures and 1,6% are plunge lands. The forest land covers 451 thousand ha. The black soils occupy 75% of the country’s surface. The above mentioned futures of Moldova create good opportunities for energy generation from biomass and vegetal wastes.

Energy system of Moldova is the basis of its economy. Moldova finds itself in a complicated energy situation. This is because practically all energy resources are imported and their costs increase. Due to lack of own energy resources, the objective for the country’s leadership is to securely supply Moldovan users with energy at affordable prices. In order to remain/become competitive, Moldovan companies need to have uninterrupted energy supplies and short-term predictable prices. At the same time, Moldova needs to diversify suppliers. This is achievable through participation in a number of regional energy projects and more active collaboration with the European Union. Considerably growing prices on energy resources demand a broader implementation of energy saving technologies and renewable energy sources (RES).

The most suitable path to reduce country’s energy import can be large involvement in energy circuit of such local energy sources like biomass, wastes from agriculture, municipalities, forest etc. Moldova during last 10 years started actively uses the biomass as energy resource. According to (9) in Moldova there are at list 25 species of annual and perennial cultures like shrubs, trees and herbaceous plants, which can be grown on large territory Moldova. The biomass of all these species can be involved in producing biofuel at industrial level. The energy potential was evaluated for all 25 species. In Table 1 it is shown the biofuel amounts yield from biomass treating as well as CO₂ obtained after their burning.

One of the most strategically important options to increase share of global renewable energy market is to use biomass in energy circuit (1). But accelerated deployment of bioenergy resources can create conflicts related to land use, water resources and biodiversity conservation. From this point of view we need to raise a question if policies concerning bioenergy promotion are always justified. Moldova’s authorities should elaborate right legislation in order to not affect bioenergy potential (2). Therefore, we need integrated policies for energy production, water management and land use. Also, it is necessary to take in consideration existing volume of biomass and demand (3). If demand will be higher than available biomass, that imports will increase.

It is well known that there are many factors able to affect biomass potential like genetically modified organisms, water availability, and climate change influence on biomass productivity (4). Also the long-term potential for energy crops is influenced by land availability, including restrictions imposed by water and nature protection, population diet, the energy crops type (species) influencing on biomass yield etc.

The Republic of Moldova, being 85% dependent on energy imports, from 2012 started to develop the appropriate legislative framework to stimulate the use of renewable energy sources. Several institutions, including the Energy Efficiency Agency and the Energy Efficiency Fund, have been created for this purpose. Most emphasis was put on the biomass, including agricultural waste, because Moldova is an agricultural country. Compare to other energy sources, the biomass can be easy converted into different states: solid, liquid and gaseous fuels (5). Additionally, bioenergy can be used for different purpose: to produce heat for homes, to produce electricity for communities and to produce fuel for transport sector. It was estimated at level of 2012 year, that bioenergy (including waste) has constituted 14% from world’s total energy consumption (6).

Today, when all countries have a tendency to involve higher share of renewable energy sources in owns energy circuits to reduce the impact on climate change and oil extraction is no longer a priority for the financing institutions (7), the priority to extend use of renewable energy sources becomes the no.1 for Republic of Moldova. This paper analyzes the evolution of Moldova’s energy consumption and the influence of the legislative framework implemented during 2012-2016 as well as the investment projects. This analysis allows to highlight the correctness of the legislative framework, what should be done and where incentives should be applied.

The Republic of Moldova has an annual energy consumption of about 2300ktep. Table 2 shows the consumption of energy for each fuel category for the period 2010-2016 (7).

The energy consumption per category is presented graphically for 2010-2016 in Fig. 1.

Figure 1

From Fig.1 it is evident that during the period 2000-2010 there was an increase of the petroleum products and of the category “biofuels and wastes” and the consumption of natural gas decreased. The energy consumption for each economy sector is shown in Table 3.

Table 3 and Fig. 2 show that energy consumption has started to increase most for the transport and residential sectors and the industry sector has declined slightly.

Figure 2

Fig. 3. shows the energy consumption for each sector of the economy in percentage terms for 2016.

Figure 3

From Fig.3 it is obvious that the leader in energy consumption is the residential sector with about 50%. The second place is represented by the transport sector with 28.4%.

The main strategic document in the energy sector is the Energy Strategy of Moldova until 2030 (ES-2030) adopted in 2013. The main targets included in this document are:

In order to achieve the given strategy and align the legislation with the acquis communautaire, the Republic of Moldova has adopted and amended a number of laws in the energy sector:

Besides the fact that the Republic of Moldova has adopted a series of legislative documents meant to stimulate the development of renewable sources and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Parliament approved a number of agreements with external donors to stimulate efficiency projects energy and development of renewable sources. The most important donors who invested in Moldova during 2012-2017 are: World Bank, EBRD, Regional Financing - E5, EIB, Sida-EBRD Energy Efficiency Technical Co-operation Fund, GIZ, etc.

The most important projects implemented by foreign investors in Moldova, which have contributed substantially to the efficiency of the energy sector and the increase of the share of renewable sources are:

The state has also provided some tax and customs benefits to promote energy efficiency and the development of RES, including:

It is very important for any country to have as little energy dependence as possible to ensure the necessary energy security. Achieving this goal requires implementing appropriate policies and securing investment in the sector. The Republic of Moldova in 2010 depended on energy imports over 80% (see Table 4).

With the implementation of the appropriate legislative framework and the introduction of incentives, local energy production began to increase and energy imports dependence began to decrease (Fig. 4).

Figure 4

From Fig.4 it is evident that the energy import decreased continuously, so in 2016 it reached the level of 74.6%. The biggest contribution was the increase in consumption of thermal energy produced from local sources (biomass). Fig. 5 shows the evolution of biofuel and waste consumption in 2010-2016.

Figure 5

The result of this increase is largely due to the implementation of few external investment projects:

The beneficial influence of these investment projects is evident if we look at the evolution of energy consumption in 20102016. Fig. 6 presents the evolution of biofuel and natural gas consumption for 2010-2016 compared to 2010.

Figure 6

The analysis of the curves in Fig. 6 highlights the fact that since 2010 there has been a continuous increase of local energy produced in the category “biofuels and wastes”, having a more pronounced increase for the period 2013-2016. In 2016, the increase in energy production in this category reached 36.33% compared to 2010. As far as the consumption of natural gas is concerned, here we have practically a continuous decrease, reaching 13% in 2016 compared to 2010. Total consumption per country of energy has been steadily increasing over the period 2010-2016, with the exception of 2012. Between 2015 and 2016 there was a more pronounced increase in energy consumption, reaching a level of 6.2% compared to 2010.

It is obvious that the implementation of the aforementioned projects has led to a very positive dynamics in diminishing the energy dependency. Due to the fact that a number of advanced technologies have been implemented in these projects, it has managed to maintain the increase of the total energy consumption below 6% compared to 2010. Without the implementation of these projects, the energy consumption would have been much higher and the dependence energy would have increased.

Another beneficial component of the implementation of the relevant legislative framework is the stimulation of the development of wind and photovoltaic sources as well as of biogas installations. The capacity of the renewable sources involved in the production of electricity in 2016 is shown in Table 5.

Today, the capacity of renewable sources of electricity generation is rising, and it is expected that after the entry into force of Law no. 10 of 2016 on the Promotion of Renewable Sources (2018), it will increase sharply. At the same time, small capacities will increase, because the new law provides for the removal of the 10kW barrier to deliver energy to the grid.

Overall, the implementation of legislation aiming to stimulate energy efficiency, renewable energy sources and to create attractive conditions for investors, led to increasing in RES in Moldova’s energy balance in 2015 up to 14.7% (8).