2 March 2012: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has announced a new seven year, €10 million loan to the Bulgarian Energetics and Energy Savings Fund (FEEI), Bulgaria’s first private fund supporting energy-saving measures in publicly-owned buildings.

Under the loan, EBRD will provide support to the public sector by funding energy performance-based projects through Energy Service Companies (ESCOs), which are used worldwide to offer a broad range of services including the design, financing and construction of energy-saving projects. FEEI will provide the capacity needed to finance energy-saving initiatives for its clients, mainly municipalities and state-owned companies.

Daniel Berg, Bulgaria Director, EBRD, noted that the Fund will support sustainable energy projects based on energy performance contracts, a scheme that can generate energy efficiency investments that municipalities operating under tight budgets would never be able to fund by themselves. The Bulgarian government estimates that public building owners could save up to 50 per cent of their annual energy bills by undertaking energy efficiency improvements.

Under this loan facility, EBRD expects to fund energy efficient public lighting and introducing combined heat and power generation plants, as well as boiler updates and thermal insulation of walls and windows replacement in the municipal sector. [EBRD News]