It’s July 2010. The temperature in Orhei, Moldova, is 28 degrees Celsius and it’s not yet 10 o’clock in the morning. This is the moment Stefan Golubciuc, General Director of the country’s largest exporter of fruit juice and canned vegetables, has chosen to launch the company’s brand new, state-of-the-art boiler room.
It’s an exciting move for Orhei-Vit, the business in question. It’s a big moment for us, too, because one of our initiatives – the Moldovan Sustainable Energy Financing Facility (MoSEFF) – helped to make it happen.
With its obsolete Soviet-era machinery, the energy efficiency issues facing Orhei-Vit are typical of those affecting Moldova’s industries. Businesses struggle to cope with equipment that often hasn’t been properly maintained in 20 years. It’s a factor that contributes to Moldova’s status as the least energy efficient nation in Europe. And in a country that depends almost entirely on costly imported energy, it’s one that many businesses find unsustainable.
MoSEFF, which was established by the EBRD, works to address this by providing businesses that want to invest in energy efficient technology with access to expert consultants and finance. In the case of Orhei-Vit, the benefits are impressive – for the business, a 24 per cent reduction in costs and for the environment, a 24 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions.
Perhaps most importantly, the success of Orhei-Vit’s partnership with MoSEFF has led to the programme gaining momentum across Moldova – something which, in the long term, can only benefit the people who live there.
