Ghelința Commune from Covasna County organized on Friday, 4th of October 2022, the Kick-off event of the project "Bioenergy Capacity Development for Local Community in Ghelinta Commune Project Ref no. 2021/330683" co-financed by Innovation Norway in the Energy Program in Romania. On this event, several national and regional policy maker provided presentations about the sustainable and green energy-based topics. Mr. Fejér László Ödön, member of Romanian Senat congratulated for the community for such an innovative approach, the Prefect of Covasna County, Mr. Raduly Istvan provided a presentation about the sustainable rural development in Covasna county, the vice mayor of Targu Secuiesc presented the future projects in its micro-region, while Mr. Vajda Lajos CEO of the Green Energy Cluster presented the work invested in Ghelinta community in last 7 years and highlighted the results achieved so far in first Bioenergy Village of Romania.
Mr. Sebestyen Tihamer mentioned that this commune is the beneficiary of a project with a budget of 252 thousand euros through which it will invest in three plants based on wood chips at three local public buildings, namely at 2 schools and at the sports hall, and also develop an energy supply chain using local resources, more precisely solid biomass waste.
"The commune has always had but still has a well-functioning wood processing industry and, through alternative projects, the infrastructure to use its by-products is being developed.
Ghelința started the development of the bioenergy sector in 2016, with the Biovill project, benefiting from the support of the Green Energy Cluster that supported the local community in this endeavor.
According to the Mayor, Mr. Ilyés Botond – János Ghelința commune has become, today, a village based on bioenergy where the local community produces and uses a large part of the energy for heating from local sources of biomass or other renewable energy sources. In the midst of the energy crisis, the commune of Ghelința intends to become self-sustainable from an energy point of view, and after the implementation of the above-mentioned project, all public buildings in Ghelința will use biomass in the form of wood chips, to generate thermal energy. Secondly, environmental protection becomes a priority for the local community and through this investment, according to technical estimates, they will reduce CO2 emissions by over 250 t eq./year. Moreover, the recovery of solid biomass waste is one of the objectives of the European Union that encourages economic societies and local communities to adapt their approach day by day, in order to become as friendly as possible to the environment. A good practice in this sense is the bioenergy-based Village in Covasna county, which recently started a project with Norwegian Funds, a project that aims to develop an investment for the production and supply of thermal energy from wood waste from local sources. The project is co-financed by the Financial Mechanisms of the EEA and Norway, 2014-2021, under the RO program - Energy for the field of Renewable Energy - Renewable Energy for SMEs.
The investment involves the installation of three plants based on wood waste with a total capacity of 460 kW that will generate, annually, over 1100 MWh of thermal energy, and the reduction of CO2 emissions is estimated at over 250 t CO2 eq./year. The total value of the investment is 252,725 euros, of which the amount of the grant is 214,000 euros, and the contribution from the local budget is only 15%.
