Energy Efficiency Fund (ENEF) established
2015-02-19
On the 18th of February an agreement establishing Energy Efficiency Fund (ENEF) was signed. The agreement was signed by the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Energy and Public Investment Development Agency. The Fund will seek to encourage investment in energy efficiency projects using the following financing tools: loans for the modernization of central government buildings and guarantees for loans from commercial banks for the modernization of street lighting projects. Fund manages 79, 65 million Euro.
"We are pleased to announce that this Fund is the first in the European Union (EU) established under EU Structural Funds 2014-2020. I believe that Energy Efficiency Fund will contribute significantly towards the improvement of energy efficiency situation in Lithuania and promotion of sustainable energy projects in whole country," - says the director of Public Investment Development Agency Gvidas Dargužas.
The need to establish such fund was discovered during an evaluation of energy efficiency situation in Lithuania (ex ante). The evaluation revealed two sensitive public infrastructure problems: low energy efficiency of central government buildings and unsatisfactory condition of the street lighting in most of the cities.
Public Investment and Development Agency was appointed as the Fund manager. It is expected that the first loans and guarantees from the Fund will be provided in summer of 2015.