Irrigation Water Users' Associations to produce renewable energy to optimize costs

Chisinau, July 12. /MOLDPRES/- The first Irrigation Water Users' Associations  (AUAI) have started the installation works of renewable energy production facilities, thanks to the investment of about 1.3 million lei (65 thousand euros) offered by USAID through the Rural Competitiveness and Resilience project.

It is AUAI Prutenii II and AUAI Criuleni, which gather 230 farmers as members and will use the energy produced in the irrigation process of more than 2,000 hectares of land in the area of the centralized irrigation systems managed by them. Later, the Rural Competitiveness and Resilience project will support two other AUAIs in making investments in the production of renewable energy.

Although more and more economic agents in the country are making the transition to renewable energy sources, a series of financial and institutional obstacles have so far not allowed AUAI to benefit from support for the exploitation of renewable energy sources. Because AUAIs have a specific legal form of organization, most green energy financing programs do not consider AUAIs as eligible entities. 

The associations' representatives said that the electricity produced by the photovoltaic installations will be used even in the current season, considering the fact that due to climate change and insufficient rainfall, farmers request irrigation services, including in November. At the same time, the reduction of expenses for electricity in the irrigation process and the optimization of expenses in the final price of domestic agricultural production, can only be achieved by implementing projects to modernize the infrastructure of Centralized Irrigation Systems, together with projects to make them more efficient from the energy point of view.

Photo: USAID