Incentives cover houses, buildings, household appliances and vehicles.
Fund for the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency will again co-finance all the successful energy efficiency programmes from last year. Citizens can expect renovation incentives of about 45 percent, reports liderpress.hr on April 3, 2016.
The media reported that the Fund will announce in July a public call for the citizens aimed at encouraging the energy renovation of family houses and buildings. During the year, citizens can also expect calls for co-financing the purchase of energy-efficient household appliances and eco-friendly vehicles. Croatia already has funds available from the EU funds, but it will have to reduce the percentage of co-financing, which should average at about 45 percent.
“For some programmes implemented by the Fund, Croatia already has European funding available. To facilitate the withdrawal of these funds for the citizens and businesses and to spare them the complex procedures, the Fund will withdraw the funds directly and distribute them through public tenders”, said Sven Muller, director of the Fund.
This implies that Croatian programs have to be adjusted in order to comply with the European financing conditions. Last year, the Fund provided 500 million kuna for energy renovation initiatives for 9,400 family homes, while the government incentives ranged from 40 to 80 percent, depending on location. The country is planning to renovate about 4,000 houses for the purpose of energy efficiency. The same number of houses was renovated with the last year’s incentives, Muller added.
In addition to energy efficient renovation programmes, the Fund collaborates with UNDP on the project of electrification of rural areas, and works to develop a special programme for the problem of energy poverty that would involve reconstruction of the houses of socially vulnerable citizens. As for the energy related renovation of apartment buildings, Muller states that 366 buildings have already signed the contracts, while the results of the calls completed at the end of last year will be released soon, which means that the construction work on a number of buildings will start soon as well.
