Towards a climate neutral EU:
efficient allocation of EU funds

Narrative

In a collaboration of the City of Ljubljana, an energy and an engineering company energy retrofits of 48 public buildings were carried out using the energy performance contracting model. The project helped to generate annual savings of over EUR 1 million. Furthermore, annual CO2 emissions were reduced by approximately 3000 tonnes. The retrofitted public buildings included kindergartens, primary school, sports halls and city administration buildings. After the retrofit, at least 25% of energy supply for the comprehensively retrofitted buildings is now generated by renewable sources. The public private partnership was deemed successful and thus continued in a second phase, which included energy retrofits of another 11 public buildings

Financial data

MFF 2014-2020 Total EUR 15 million (of which ca. EUR 6 million from EU funds), 51% of project costs were financed by private partners

Recommendations

ESCO (energy service contracting) financing of energy retrofits of public buildings has the potential to mobilise large amounts of private financing in the transition towards a low-carbon society. However, there is a risk that private partners focus on the most profitable energy retrofit measures, so that these retrofits are not as "deep" as they could be. For the rapid transition towards a low-carbon society it is important that as much energy as possible is saved. Therefore, it is important that ESCO agreements include a balanced bundle of measures that makes them attractive for private actors without loosing the focus on climate change objectives.

Information sources

Other info

https://www.umanotera.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Dobra-praksa-ESCO-MOL.pdf (Slovenian) https://www.eu-skladi.si/en/cohesion-by-2020-1/success-stories-of-2014-2020/ljubljana-z-energetsko-obnovo-stavb-prihrani-milijon-evrov-letno (English)