English

Bleiweisova cesta 30
SI - 1000 Ljubljana
Slovenia

Eco Fund, Slovenian Environmental Public Fund (Eco Fund), was established in 1993. Its main purpose is to promote development in the field of environmental protection by offering financial incentives such as soft loans and grants for different environmental investment projects. It began with soft loans for investments in environmental protection as a revolving fund. Perhaps the most significant aspect of Eco Fund’s operating environment is the requirement that Eco Fund maintains the real value of its assets. For this reason, Eco Fund has provided support to environmental investments through soft loans and developed a strong focus on the financial sustainability of the projects it supports. In 2008, Eco Fund was granted the use of additional financial mechanisms such as grants to support environmental investments. Grants are financed mostly by fees paid by end users of energy and funds from the climate change fund (revenues from CO2 allowances).

In order to reach its goals, Eco Fund prepares and carries out yearly plans which serve as a basis for the publishment of public calls. Should they wish to receive a grant or a soft loan, the eligible person must send an application for a grant and/or soft loan. Since the beginning in 2008, the number of applications that Eco Fund that receives keeps rising. Eco Fund’s subsidies have had a positive effect on tax revenues, diminishing of grey economy, new green jobs, sustainable development of the construction planning and business, as well as on the development of the use of strategic resources such as wood. These effects which simultaneously contribute to the fight against the environmental crisis, on the one hand, and benefit the economy, on the other, point to a positive role of Eco Fund in the process of green growth and development in Slovenia.

A few years ago, Eco Fund has taken over the organization and financing of free energy advisory network offering free expert advice on how to improve energy efficiency to households. It has also taken over part of the task of energy poverty reduction by covering the entire cost of several environmental investments of households struggling with energy poverty. Currently, Eco Fund is facing new challenges such as adapting financial incentives to meet new demands of national strategies that set additional tasks for Eco Fund: more deep energy renovations vis-à-vis shallow renovations, higher number of required renovations, stimulation of the remaining, unrefurbished building stock, energy poverty reduction, development of innovative financial instruments etc.

From 1 January to 31 December 2019, a total of EUR 62,100,057 of subsidies were paid by Eco Fund to various beneficiaries (for investments in residential buildings, construction of nearly zero-energy buildings and for electric vehicles, legal entities for electric vehicles, energy audits and energy efficiency investments, and municipalities for environmentally friendly public passenger buses in degraded areas, for charging stations for electric cars in Natura 2000 and protected areas, and for the construction of nearly zero-energy buildings and energy renovation of buildings owned by municipalities), namely:

- for energy efficiency and renewable energy measures in residential buildings, including self-sufficiency in electricity, EUR 41,618,294,

- for the performance of energy audits in companies EUR 35,528,

- EUR 1,897,005 for energy efficiency investments by companies,

- EUR 8,797,908 for investments by municipalities in the construction of nearly zero-energy buildings,

- for environmentally friendly electric vehicles and buses, EUR 9,415,548, and

- for charging stations for electric cars in the Natura 2000 area and protected areas EUR 335,774.