The concern of the Soldanesti city authorities for the implementation of energy efficiency measures in local development policies highlights a high degree of awareness regarding current environmental issues. In 2016, Soldanesti City Hall formalized its views towards this issue by joining the Covenant of Mayors and developing and approving the Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP), which was planned to be implemented over the following 4 years. Due to the limited financial resources, the electoral cycle but also the limited time horizon, only a few actions have been implemented, the rest remaining only listed but unrealized activities.
It is important to mention that the intention to invest in public buildings has been among the priorities of the Mayor's office for some time, concrete activities being made to attract investments by contracting loans from International Financial Institutions, but also using their own sources. However, the question of the priority of making investments remains a dilemma created by the lack of technical data related to public buildings in the city, data such as current energy consumption, general technical condition, availability of technical projects of buildings, etc. The major difficulty is dictated by the impossibility of applying the criteria for prioritizing buildings, because the technical information is either insufficient, incomplete or completely missing. In addition, the low level of knowledge in this field does not allow the responsible persons to quantify the negative effects of losses suffered due to poor performance of public buildings in the city. The same thing prevents the identification of solutions that increase the performance of buildings. And even if there are engineers which can, at the request of the mayor's office, propose local technical solutions for certain buildings, the public authority cannot, based on singular solutions, create a systemic vision on the necessary solutions for the entire fund of buildings in the city. Thus, the adoption of decisions on reducing energy consumption is difficult to achieve. It is in this context that the mayor's office considers it absolutely necessary to develop a sectoral development plan as a first step in addressing the issue of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. By elaborating and approving the Sustainable Energy Action Plan in 2016, the mayor's office made a first attempt to systematize the data related to the energy sector of Soldanesti, including the building fund. In fact, this document is an investment plan and the roadmap needed for the city hall to intervene in the planned systemic way. In addition, the local authority wants to update the SEAP developed in 2016, for reasons of attracting investment. Thus, the updating and approval in the local council meeting of SECAP will allow to update the status to an active member of the convention, which will later allow the city to benefit from non-reimbursable sources for the implementation of the plan's provisions. Thus, once updated and approved, this document is a lever to attract funds that will be used to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
With the support of the Small Grants Program of the Global Environmental Fund, the City Hall aims to update the SECAP, which provides an overview of the necessary investments in the field of reducing energy consumption at the local level but also greenhouse gas emissions. Also, the mayor's office has already planned to carry out specific investment activities. An energy audit for M?r?i?or kindergarten has already been developed, being the first step in the process of identifying the optimal measures necessary to increase the energy efficiency of buildings. The investment part of this project will be made by equipping the institution's kitchen with a high-performance ventilation system with thermal energy recovery, which will reduce energy losses of the institution, installation of a system for producing electricity from solar energy and hot water preparation by installing a system of solar collectors. In the context of the same project, the local public authority initiated the process of contracting a concessional loan from the Nordic Environment FInance Corporation (NEFCO) which involves thermal insulation of the building, roof renovation, carpentry change, renovation of the internal heating system by replacing radiators and pipes and installation of thermostatic valves. These measures will be implemented during 2021, in the amount of approximately 234,000 Euro, which will make Martisor kindergarten a model of public building both locally and regionally. In this regard, the local public authority considers the blending of funding sources to be attracted in this project as a unique opportunity for the city, and the support provided by the Small Grants Program of the Global Environment Facility would bring obvious benefits, which will achieve several goals and namely:
1 Creating an adequate local framework for making investments in the field of energy efficiency in Soldanesti city - updating the SEAP with its transformation into SECAP;
2 Realization of a model project to increase energy efficiency from blended sources, grant and loan at Martisor kindergarten in Soldanesti city;
3 Increasing the degree of attracting investments in the city by applying to the calls launched by the European Commission starting with 2021 (Covenant of Mayors);
4 Increasing the degree of awareness of the Soldanesti city inhabitants and in the region in the field of energy efficiency and its benefits.
The proposed project is relevant to the objectives of the Country Strategy of the GEF SGP. The project will address two areas of operational phase 6. Component 3: Co-benefits of access to the low-carbon energy system by reducing energy consumption in preschools in the city. Component 6: Promoting social inclusion (Grantor+): by ensuring gender equality, women being actively involved in the project activities.