Croatian Ministry calls for energy efficiency, renewables projects for industrial production

Croatia’s Ministry of Environmental Protection and Energy published an invitation for the co-financing of projects to raise energy efficiency levels and the use of renewable energy sources in industrial production. The Ministry said in a statement that it had secured a budget of HRK 114 million (around EUR 15 million) from the European Regional Development Fund for grants to implement selected projects.

The Ministry published its invitation for projects as part of the Competitiveness and Cohesion 2014-2020 program, that is the part of that program aimed at increasing energy efficiency and raising the level of use of renewable energy sources in industrial production.

The statement said the invitation for project proposals is aimed at providing support to efforts to raise energy efficiency in industrial production and reduce the use of fossil fuels through energy savings.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Energy will accept project proposals for the renovation of production facility and office buildings to raise their energy efficiency levels and for projects to install equipment needed for the use of renewable energy sources in production facilities across Croatia. The project proposals can be submitted to the Ministry from November 10, 2017 to January 17, 2018.

The Ministry said its invitation is for micro, small, medium and large private enterprises and companies registered for production and processing activities, except for the production and processing of food, beverages and tobacco products. The statement said the invitation was open only to individual entrepreneurs and companies, not associations or partnerships, adding that they can submit only one proposal each and get only one grant.

The lowest amount of the grants which a project proposal can receive is HRK 350,000 (around EUR 46,000) and the highest is HRK 20 million (around EUR 265,000). Micro, small, medium and large enterprises and companies can count on financial support amounting to between 55 percent and 85 percent of the total planned funds needed to implement their projects. The grants will be allocated by the deadline of 120 days from the closing date for project proposal submissions.