The European Union has invested 500 thousand euros through UNDP for the installation of photovoltaic panels on five district hospitals

The installation of photovoltaic panels comes as a response to the energy crisis that the Republic of Moldova is going through and the high costs incurred by medical institutions.

“The project will bring us savings, even up to 50% on electricity. We will redirect the saved money to the patients nutrition and better conditions for them. The beneficiary is not the hospital, but all the 6,000 patients who annually benefit from hospital medical assistance within the premises of the Ștefan Vodă district hospital. In addition, as a medical institution, it is important that we are environmentally friendly,” said Victor Pelin, Acting Director of the Ștefan Vodă District Hospital.

The panels on the five hospitals will annually produce 780 MWh of green electricity, reduce hospital costs by over 20 million lei annually and reduce CO2 emissions by 437 tons annually.

“All the medical equipment in our institution is based on electricity. With the coming of the cold season, we will have a benefit, because the water is also heated by electricity. These panels will bring us a benefit, namely in reducing expenses on the electricity bill,” says Nadejda Ulinici, Director of the Nisporeni District Hospital.

In Nisporeni, 242 photovoltaic panels were installed, with a capacity of 140 kW.

“Absolutely everything in the lab is powered by electricity. 80% of the equipment also works at night, 24/7, because we also have the emergency laboratory, which also works at night. That's why I'm telling you that the electricity from the sun for the hospital is very good, very very good,” says Ana Basoc, Head of the laboratory of the Nisporeni District Hospital.

The photovoltaic panels were installed with the support of the “Addressing the impacts of the energy crisis in the Republic of Moldova” programme, financed by the European Union and implemented by UNDP Moldova.

With a budget of €13 million allocated by the European Union, the programme "Addressing the impacts of the energy crisis in the Republic of Moldova", implemented by UNDP, has supported the creation of the platform compensatii.gov.md and will launch a campaign to replace old household appliances with new energy-efficient ones. The programme finances the installation of photovoltaic panels in households and several hospitals, as well as the change of central heating systems in several blocks to more efficient horizontal distribution systems. 

In addition, the programme provides support for the transposition of the EU's third energy package into both primary and secondary legislation, as well as the transposition of a number of directives and regulations of the "Clean Energy for All Europeans" package, which address the energy performance of buildings, renewable energy sources, energy efficiency, good governance and electricity market design.