Moldava, a small eastern European country sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine, is currently totally dependent on energy imports. To date, the majority of local demand has been met by the imports of traditional energy resources, such as natural gas, coal and oil products, mostly from Russia.
According to state plans, energy dependence on Russia should be significantly reduced by 2017-2018, mainly through the development of renewables, in particular wind power. Wind has the biggest potential among renewables in Moldova, said a spokesman for the country's energy ministry.
Moldova also recently announced it was targeting a 17% share of renewables in the total energy balance by 2020. To help achieve this, existing bureaucratic hurdles for wind farm development will be eased.
Moldova is also planning to introduce a green tariff for wind power, to be set at €0.12/kWh.
The government has not ruled out the possibility of creating a single grid with neighbouring Romania, which should help lower wind energy prices in the country, as all future wind power plants would be connected to this grid.
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