Efficient Romania Begins Energy Renovation at ‘Elie Radu’ Technological High School
Efficient Romania the biggest private project of national interest for the energy efficiency of buildings, run by the Energy Policy Group (EPG) with funding from the official sponsor OMV Petrom, proceeds with the energy renovation according to cutting edge standards of the first school selected to participate in this program. Works began on August 31 at Building C10 of the Energy Technological High School ‘Elie Radu’ in Ploiesti, a building housing both classrooms, on the ground floor as well as a boarding facility at the upper floors.
“We can all contribute to a sustainable future and a cleaner environment by making our energy consumption more efficient. Romania has a huge potential to achieve, through energy efficiency, significant reductions in the energy consumption. Upgrading public buildings and homes will play an essential role in increasing the living standards and for a sustainable economic development, according to the Climate Agenda,” Christina Verchere, CEO OMV Petrom, said.
“Investing in schools means investing in the future. Therefore, we are glad to acknowledge that we started the thorough renovation of this school in Ploiesti – as a pilot investment. Despite the difficult economic context generated by the pandemic, that made it difficult to implement the energy rehabilitation of schools, today we went into action,” Radu Dudau, EPG director and Efficient Romania project coordinator, added.
“A comfortable and healthy indoor environment in schools is essential for the students’ wellbeing and productivity. The energy efficiency measures are important not only because of the savings they produce, but also for the students’ health and schooling productivity benefits, with long-term effects on the society’s development. We are grateful to Efficient Romania project that the first pilot school building selected for renovation to nZEB standards is in Ploiesti municipium. We hope that this project will make a solid contribution to trigger the Renovation Wave Romania so badly needs,” Andrei-Liviu Volosevici, the mayor of Ploiești municipium, mentioned.
Currently, the education unit is faced with numerous problems related to thermal and acoustic insulation, the lighting system as well as the poor indoor air quality. The total investment assessed for the rehabilitation of the building amounts to approximately Euro one million, and of the results will benefit around 250 students and 60 teachers.
As a national premiere, the renovation will be done to nZEB standards (building with close to zero energy consumption, due to high energy efficiency). This will result in significant energy savings and by default, to the significant diminishing of the energy bills, as well as it will drastically improve the school usage conditions, with direct benefits for the students’ and teachers’ wellbeing.
One of the works to be implemented by the Efficient Romania team is upgrading the lighting system, replacing the fluorescent and incandescent lighting fixtures with high energy efficient and long-life cycle lighting fixtures, provided by the sponsor Signify, as well as implementing equipment to produce energy from sustainable sources.
Based on the renovation standards enforced by the European law and the national methodology, we decided to begin with a relatively small pilot building renovation project, enabling us to develop a thorough financial and technical model for the in-depth renovation works we implement in the program. This is the reason for including in the program one building of ‘Elie Radu’ Energy Technological High School in Ploiesti.
Launched in June 2019, Efficient Romania project was conceived in two strategic directions: public information and education campaigns related to the benefits of the energy efficiency for the society, economy, and environment, as well to implement energy renovation works in public schools in Romania to international standards, to set a model for the public authorities.
About ‘Elie Radu’ Energy High School
Building C10 of the ‘Elie Radu’ Energy High School in Ploiesti was commissioned in the year 1978. The building (U+G+2F) is mainly intended to be both a school and a boarding facility. The school has approximately 150 students for full time learning, aged between 14 and 19, and for the evening classes – approximately 100 adult students. The boarding facility houses approximately 80 students, in full time learning, high school and vocational classes. Also, approximately 60 teachers work in this school building.
The built area of the ground floor is of approximately 504 square meters, and the combined built area of the three floors is of 1.512 square meters.
About Efficient Romania
Efficient Romania is a private, national public interest project, managed by Energy Policy Group (EPG), in a partnership with and financed by OMV Petrom. The project was launched in the summer of 2019 and consists of running a national energy efficiency program until 2022. Efficient Romania aims to support Romania’s goals for 2030 in terms of reducing carbon emissions and increasing energy efficiency, both through information and education campaigns and through implementing actual major renovation projects in public schools, in different regions of the country.
