‘Energy for Life’ Project Goes On

Continuing the ‘Energy for Life’ project, the Intelligent Energy Association (AIE) turned on the lights in the Gurghiu Mountains on the eve of the 2022 Winter Holidays.

The Intelligent Energy Association has completed the fourth phase of the ‘Energy for Life’ project through which photovoltaic panels have been installed in isolated households located in the Gurghiu Mountains. Thus, the inhabitants of the five houses in the village of Valea Rotunda, Dealu Commune, Harghita County, which have never been electrified, spent the first winter holidays of their lives in homes lit by electricity. The beneficiaries of this phase of the ‘Energy for Life’ project are people of all ages; the youngest resident is seven months old and the oldest is 74.

Launched in the summer of 2021 on the occasion of the Intelligent Energy Association’s fifth anniversary, the ‘Energy for Life’ project was received with great enthusiasm and received financial support that made it possible to carry it out in four stages: Intregalde locality, Alba County (June 2021), Puntea Lupului village, Harghita County (October 2021), Naruja and Vintileasca communes, Vrancea County (September 2022) and Valea Rotunda village, Dealu commune, Harghita County (December 2022).

“I believe that it is our duty, of all of us, to get involved in projects that have an impact on society, projects that can change the lives of our fellows for the better and at the same time have a strong social message. The sustainable development we all want can only be achieved by showing care for people and the environment. Through ‘Energy for Life’ we have managed to change the lives of the beneficiaries of this project for the better, bringing electricity into their homes for the first time, while using renewable energy. As I said before, Energy for Life is a project about people and with people. It’s a project about people who have not had electricity in their homes for a single day and people who have made things happen and got electricity into those homes, whether they are sponsors, supporters, or volunteers in our cause. We are grateful to all of them for their involvement, for bringing a ray of hope in the lives of the beneficiaries of the project and we hope that we will not stop here, but that it will become a tradition and that we will continue this project in the years to come,” said Dumitru Chisalita, President of the Intelligent Energy Association.

In Romania, a European country, in the 21st century, according to an estimate by the Ministry of Energy based on data collected from County Councils and Prefectures, in 2018 more than 52,000 households had no electricity, many of them in remote areas. Although necessary, investments to connect households to the power grid do not demonstrate the criterion of efficiency, i.e. they do not bring benefits to the distribution operator, so it will be a long time before electricity reaches the grid. All funding for the installation of photovoltaic panels excludes households that are less than 2 km from the existing power grid. Thus, about 9000 households in Romania have no hope of seeing electricity.

Through the ‘Energy for Life’ project, the Intelligent Energy Association aimed both to attract the necessary funding for the installation of photovoltaic panels in remote houses that have never had electricity and to raise the alarm about the large number of non-electrified households in Romania today. Involvement throughout this initiative at all stages of the project has brought about a change for the better and Energy has been able to appear in the lives of all beneficiaries.