Intelligent Energy Association launches the second edition of the “Houses with Heat” project

Intelligent Energy Association launched today, in Bucharest, the second edition of the “Houses with Heat” project, through which it aims to support families in difficulty, by distributing firewood needed to heat homes in wintertime. The start of the project was given at the first beneficiary house, inhabited by a 75-year-old woman, with no sources of income except social assistance.

As part of this action, the “Registry of Houses without Heat” was launched, made by the Intelligent Energy Association in partnership with the Romanian Red Cross, a nationwide situation, structured by county, of homes that use wood as a heating source, inhabited by vulnerable people or families such as the elderly, disabled people, single-parent families or families with many children and limited material possibilities.

According to an estimate by the Intelligent Energy Association, in Romania there are currently approximately 3.5 million households that heat with firewood, of which approx. 80,000 are located in Bucharest and Ilfov, of which, according to the mentioned register, more than 7,300 are inhabited by vulnerable families, for whom home heating is a real problem.

Teleorman and Bacău are the counties with the most households that use wood-burning stoves as a source of heating, inhabited by people living on the poverty line, with over 1,600 and 1,400 respectively. At the opposite pole are the counties of Argeș, Bihor, Giurgiu, Hunedoara, Ialomița, Neamţ, Satu Mare, Vâlcea and Vrancea with the lowest number of households reported as inhabited by vulnerable people, under 100.

Sebastian Burduja, Minister of Energy: “In the last year, I had the opportunity to participate in actions that made a real difference: We took wood to families who had nothing to warm themselves with in the winter and installed photovoltaic panels on the houses of those who never had access to electricity. Something that we consider trivial, light, heat, for thousands of people in Romania represents a chance for a normal life.

I am convinced that every action counts. Even seemingly small things can make the difference between a hard winter and a warm home. That is why I want to reaffirm my full support for the fight against energy poverty. The Ministry of Energy will remain a reliable partner for all organizations dedicated to this cause, and we will do our best to accelerate the achievement of our goals.”

Dumitru Chisăliță, President, Intelligent Energy Association: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations provides for the principle ˂Leave No One Behind˃, which promotes the reduction of social inequality, the eradication of poverty and the provision of development support to vulnerable people. It is our responsibility as a society to support those in need. What we saw today at the delivery of the first pallet of firewood from the “Houses with Heat” project is another side of Bucharest, a city of contrasts, where not only were there households that heat with firewood, but they are inhabited by people on the edge of poverty, just a few kilometers from the center of the capital. Heating with wood is the most widespread way for people to warm themselves in Romania. Firewood, used responsibly, is a renewable and environmentally friendly resource – the firewood distributed within our project comes from the so-called “thinning” and is dry. In Romania, 39% of Romanians are in the energy poor category. It is very possible that they, when they actually have nothing to heat themselves with, use green wood with low energy efficiency and which generates a high degree of pollution in the atmosphere, endangering the health of the population, or cut trees protected by law. Therefore, our project, in addition to the social side, promotes the reduction of CO2 emissions and the protection of biodiversity.”