Financial incentives for “Energy efficiency and Renewable energy sources” projects in Croatia

By Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund

Published on 19 February 2021

Croatia

About this good practice

Energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy sources, as well as systematic energy management, play a key role in the national energy policy, environmental policy, the mitigation and adaptation to climate change policy of the Republic of Croatia.
Therefore, during 2020 EPEEF launched 17 public calls for EE and use of RES projects, which are listed in the table below. All public calls were published on the Fund’s website www.fzoeu.hr along with media coverage, so that all potential applicants could get timely information about the requirements and methods of granting EPEEF funding. The date of the publication of the call and the application to the call itself gave enough time to potential applicants to obtain and collect all the necessary documentation. In line with the best practices used in the EU, and with a view to ensuring transparent procedure, electronic application – e-Application – was used.
Public calls are intended for natural persons (citizens), legal persons (local self-government units, regional self-government units, companies, state administration bodies, family holdings).
The interest in applying to the public calls invited by EPEEF has been growing year on year, while the funding to be granted by EPEEF is limited and defined in the EPEEF’s Financial Plan.
In 2020, for the public calls in the field of EE and RES, EPEEF provided 80 million € in total.
Over 16,000 applications were received, of which over 9,800 projects were contracted.

Resources needed

Value: 597,6 mil CK (of which 425 mil.CK was contracted); 32 persons (one sector) working full time on the preparation, workshops for beneficiary preparation, evaluation of project proposals, selection and drafting contracts and control of implementation of approved projects.

Evidence of success

SAVINGS in energy, costs and CO2 emissions;Increased % of RES in Croatia;Local population start to install RES in their households;4 MW installed power in PV modules set up in households,public,industry and tourism;Implemented smart transport ąnd city solutions;Energy renovation started in 3,100 family houses; first time in Croatia,launch of the programme for combating energy poverty; Extended infrastructure with 43 EV charging stations; Purchase of over 700 electric vehicles,boats and buses.

Potential for learning or transfer

We showed fine examples of how things can be done with a bit of enthusiasm (and not so much money).
The interest in energy renovation building is growing every year because people recognised the benefits achieved by their neighbours, and they became aware of the advantages of energy renovation and use of RES, indicating that in the upcoming period the overall allocation of funding should be increased in order the be able to co-finance as many projects as possible, and at the same time to grant the optimum percentage of co-financing.
Awareness raised on the benefits of EE and using RES.
Heating system improvements for residential and public buildings.
Reduced cost for heating ranging from 45%-75%.
It is vital to put in place transparent and simple procedures, and to ensure transparent treatment of all applicants;
It is important to provide good IT support so that a large number of applications could be processed in a relatively short period;