- Published: 04.12.2019.
Conference “Energy renovation of residential buildings”
Ministry of Construction and Physical Planning (MCPP) held the conference “Energy renovation of residential buildings” today, intended for managers and representatives of building co-owners. They are the potential applicants under the new Call for delivering project proposals for renovating residential buildings, details of which are presented at the conference.
The new Call will be published in the first quarter of next year for which the Ministry allocated HRK 152 million and co-financing rate through grants from European structural and investment funds will be as it was during the last Call, which is 60 %.
Deputy Prime Minister of Republic of Croatia and Minister of construction and physical planning, Predrag Štromar, opened the conference and attendees were addressed by Advisor to the Director at Energy Efficiency and Environmental Protection Fund Suada Mustajbegović.
“Despite the rhetoric that Croatia does not exploit enough resources from EU funds, Ministry of Construction and Physical Planning, after signing the last Agreement in August, contracted 95 percent of allocated resources from EU funds, specifically for energy renovation. So, it is possible, and we do not plan on stopping there! Everything that is at our disposal we take advantage of, we continue to increase the allocations, and we intend to keep up with the tempo”, said Minister of construction and physical planning Štromar and added that Ministry plans the new Call for energy renovation of residential buildings in first quarter of 2020, followed by public buildings and residential houses renovation.
“We are aware the interest is enormous, and we will focus on exploiting resources from other ministries which were not able to utilize, in order to ensure enough resources are available. So far, we have 1400 renovated schools, hospitals, kindergartens and residential buildings. Over 70 thousand children are now attending more commodious classrooms, and over 16 thousand household were included in energy renovation as well. Warmer and comfortable classrooms and kindergartens, renovated hospitals and health centers, greater energy savings in households – all result of energy renovation of buildings and its multiple benefits, from cities, municipalities and institutes, but citizens as well. Increased quality of life and work, money is being saved for citizens and local authorities alike”, said Minister Predrag Štromar.
Since 2015 until today we published five Calls for energy renovation of public and residential buildings. A total of 1455 projects were contracted, investments totaling EUR 550 million, out of which EUR 295,3 million are grants form European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Through Operational Programme Competitiveness and Cohesion, MCPP as Intermediary body level one had over 311 million euros, out of which 100 million euros was intended for renovation of residential buildings, and 71 million euros for multi-apartment buildings. Renovation encompasses all building types, from ones with 3 up to ones with 250 households. Based on the previous Call for energy renovation of residential buildings over 550 will be renovated, whose average age over half a century, and oldest one dates to 1866.
New Call, as was the case with previous ones, requests that projects achieve at least 50% savings compared to annual energy consumption for heating/cooling prior to renovation. Since the new, sixth in total, Call is announced until the application deadline, applicants will have enough time to prepare project proposals, but will be met with some novelties. Unlike the previous Call for residential buildings, Energy Efficiency and Environmental Protection Fund (EEPF) expert support is optional therefore applicants may submit the projects themselves. The other novelty is the use of eFondovi IT system where all the application documentation will be submitted and where all communication will take place during project implementation.
Head of Sector for European union Programs, International and EU Affairs Ines Androić Brajčić presented Ministry of Construction and Physical Planning plans for future multiannual financial framework.
“Alongside energy renovation, our focus will be on green infrastructure in urban areas and circular management of spaces and buildings. Developing green infrastructure and promoting circular management of buildings will improve Croatian urban areas and contribute to, among other things, mitigating heat island effects, uncontrollable urban sprawl, prolonging buildings lifespan in spaces and use of renewable energy sources. Furthermore, through innovations in establishing regenerative urban design and innovations in use of spaces and buildings we will contribute to improving lives of our citizens and we believe in our success in that field as well. In hopes of achieving these objectives we hope to exploit significant amount of resources from European structural and investment funds in financial framework 2021 – 2027.”
As part of the conference a brochure was presented on implemented energy renovation projects of residential buildings with most successful projects from 14 counties, showing statistics on energy renovation of residential buildings for every county in Republic of Croatia. A video was shown as well, highlighting one of the largest and most successful examples of energy renovation of residential buildings. It is a building in Rijeka, with 11 households and whose renovation project was worth HRK 3,9 million. Thanks to the renovation which included reconstruction of the roof and thermal insulation improvement of the outer wall shifter from energy class “D” to “B” with energy savings of 70 percent.
Deputy Prime Minister of Republic of Croatia and Minister of construction and physical planning, Predrag Štromar, opened the conference and attendees were addressed by Advisor to the Director at Energy Efficiency and Environmental Protection Fund Suada Mustajbegović.
“Despite the rhetoric that Croatia does not exploit enough resources from EU funds, Ministry of Construction and Physical Planning, after signing the last Agreement in August, contracted 95 percent of allocated resources from EU funds, specifically for energy renovation. So, it is possible, and we do not plan on stopping there! Everything that is at our disposal we take advantage of, we continue to increase the allocations, and we intend to keep up with the tempo”, said Minister of construction and physical planning Štromar and added that Ministry plans the new Call for energy renovation of residential buildings in first quarter of 2020, followed by public buildings and residential houses renovation.
“We are aware the interest is enormous, and we will focus on exploiting resources from other ministries which were not able to utilize, in order to ensure enough resources are available. So far, we have 1400 renovated schools, hospitals, kindergartens and residential buildings. Over 70 thousand children are now attending more commodious classrooms, and over 16 thousand household were included in energy renovation as well. Warmer and comfortable classrooms and kindergartens, renovated hospitals and health centers, greater energy savings in households – all result of energy renovation of buildings and its multiple benefits, from cities, municipalities and institutes, but citizens as well. Increased quality of life and work, money is being saved for citizens and local authorities alike”, said Minister Predrag Štromar.
Since 2015 until today we published five Calls for energy renovation of public and residential buildings. A total of 1455 projects were contracted, investments totaling EUR 550 million, out of which EUR 295,3 million are grants form European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Through Operational Programme Competitiveness and Cohesion, MCPP as Intermediary body level one had over 311 million euros, out of which 100 million euros was intended for renovation of residential buildings, and 71 million euros for multi-apartment buildings. Renovation encompasses all building types, from ones with 3 up to ones with 250 households. Based on the previous Call for energy renovation of residential buildings over 550 will be renovated, whose average age over half a century, and oldest one dates to 1866.
New Call, as was the case with previous ones, requests that projects achieve at least 50% savings compared to annual energy consumption for heating/cooling prior to renovation. Since the new, sixth in total, Call is announced until the application deadline, applicants will have enough time to prepare project proposals, but will be met with some novelties. Unlike the previous Call for residential buildings, Energy Efficiency and Environmental Protection Fund (EEPF) expert support is optional therefore applicants may submit the projects themselves. The other novelty is the use of eFondovi IT system where all the application documentation will be submitted and where all communication will take place during project implementation.
Head of Sector for European union Programs, International and EU Affairs Ines Androić Brajčić presented Ministry of Construction and Physical Planning plans for future multiannual financial framework.
“Alongside energy renovation, our focus will be on green infrastructure in urban areas and circular management of spaces and buildings. Developing green infrastructure and promoting circular management of buildings will improve Croatian urban areas and contribute to, among other things, mitigating heat island effects, uncontrollable urban sprawl, prolonging buildings lifespan in spaces and use of renewable energy sources. Furthermore, through innovations in establishing regenerative urban design and innovations in use of spaces and buildings we will contribute to improving lives of our citizens and we believe in our success in that field as well. In hopes of achieving these objectives we hope to exploit significant amount of resources from European structural and investment funds in financial framework 2021 – 2027.”
As part of the conference a brochure was presented on implemented energy renovation projects of residential buildings with most successful projects from 14 counties, showing statistics on energy renovation of residential buildings for every county in Republic of Croatia. A video was shown as well, highlighting one of the largest and most successful examples of energy renovation of residential buildings. It is a building in Rijeka, with 11 households and whose renovation project was worth HRK 3,9 million. Thanks to the renovation which included reconstruction of the roof and thermal insulation improvement of the outer wall shifter from energy class “D” to “B” with energy savings of 70 percent.