This NAMA considers the potential for using willow biomass as input fuel for heating residential and non-residential buildings in the Republic of Moldova. Currently, more than 82% of Moldova’s final energy consumption is met by imported sources of energy. As such, the development of local energy willow projects could positively contribute to the country’s energy security. Furthermore, because willow biomass would displace carbon-intensive fuels currently used for heating, it would also contribute to improving Moldova’s emissions profile. Both of these outcomes are strongly aligned with Moldova’s strategic policies concerning the energy and environmental sectors. This NAMA aims to support the cultivation of energy willow over 20,000 ha across Moldova, starting with a 62.64 ha pilot project in Taraclia. It is expected that willow biomass will be used for decentralised heating by both households and non-residential institutions like hospitals and schools, avoiding between 186 and 295 ktCO2e of annual emissions from fossil fuels used for heating, and reducing the yearly demand for fossil fuels by 3.55%. The energy willow is a dicotyledonous woody plant, which grows extremely fast – up to 3.5 cm per day. One of the main advantages of energy crops over other agricultural crops is their ability to grow on damaged or sloping land, where other crops would never grow. It has high productivity, absorb a lot of nutrients, and can thus degrade the quality of soil. The energy resulting from a 100 ha plantation can heat up about 35 thousand m3 of living space, i.e. more than 7 thousand flats. The calorific vale of pellets or briquettes produced from energy willow (4,900 kCal) is higher than that of beech or oak, and is comparable to that of coal and natural gas. To date, there are only a few energy willow plantations in Moldova, totalling an area of up to 50 ha. There is, however, great international experience with growing and processing such biomass (e.g. Sweden, Hungary, and Romania). This, together with the know-how accumulated by existing local entrepreneurs, provides a good starting point for implementing such projects on a wider scale in Moldova.

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