Smart
Finance for Smart Buildings SFSB): investing in energy efficiency in buildings
Financial Instrument
The
financial instrument is financed under the Operational Programme I – Fostering
a competitive and sustainable economy to meet our challenges – 2014-2020.
Background
The Smart
Finance for Smart Buildings (SFSB) initiative, is aimed at making energy
efficiency investments in both commercial and residential buildings, more
attractive to private investors, through the intelligent use of EU funds as a
form of guarantee. The instrument’s main objective is to provide better
access to finance for both private individuals and enterprises through capital
relief and loss protection via the provision of a capped guarantee for
investments related to the building envelope (e.g. insulation, windows &
doors and other thermal performance measures) and investments related to the
building system (e.g. domestic hot water, cooling systems, Building and Energy
Management Systems).
The
need for a Financial Instrument was established following an ex-ante study which
confirmed the financing gap in the household and corporate sector in Energy
Efficiency (EE) and Renewable Energy (RE) initiatives. The study proposed
solutions to maximise the impact of public support though the implementation of
a Financial Instrument which could help in filling the financing gap by:
- Supporting the credit system in
providing resources to EE/RE initiatives by using EU funds as a capped guarantee
(e.g. reducing the risk of these transactions);
- Helping households and enterprises by
offering better conditions to access finance for EE/RE
- Complementing other public support
schemes, reducing grant dependency of EE/RE initiatives and therefore maximise
the grant impact.
The instrument is being implemented in
collaboration between the Managing Authority and the European Investment Fund. The
commercial bank that will act as a Financial Intermediary is expected to be
chosen in early 2020 following an open Call for Services.
Financial Information
Total Budget: €15M of ERDF financing
EU Co-Financing
Rate: 80%
Managing
Authority
Planning and Priorities Coordination
Division (PPCD)
Ministry
for European Affairs and Equality (MEAE)
Triq
il-Kukkanja,
Santa
Venera, SVR 1411
+356 2200
1142/3
Managing
Authority Website
Download
The approved
OP and revised version of OPI – Fostering
a competitive and sustainable economy to meet our challenges – 2014-2020
may be found here.
The
executive summary of the Ex-Ante Assessment of Financial Instrument in
Operational Programme I 2014-2020 financed through ERDF may be found here.