engleski

Effectiveness of financial incentives to energy efficiency- case: Croatia

The Croatian Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund was established by the law in 2003 as an extra-budgetary institution, funded by “polluter pays” principle through collection of various environmental charges (for emissions of pollutants in atmosphere, motor vehicles, waste). It has become the underlying mechanism for gathering money and investing it in projects and programmes related to environmental protection, waste management, renewable energy sources and energy efficiency. Since its establishment, the Fund has co-financed through subsidies, loans and grants more than 800 energy efficiency projects. The effects, in terms of energy savings, of this co-financing scheme were evaluated using bottom-up methods. The paper presents the process of ex post savings evaluation, methods used and results obtained. The costs of energy savings (€ per kWh saved) from the government point of view per measures and end-use sectors are shown. The calculation results show that the highest energy savings are achieved in the industry sector and at the same time these savings are achieved at the lowest costs from the government point of view. Measures in the public buildings, dominantly those related to the refurbishment of technical building systems (excluding building envelope) are ranked second best according to the calculated costs of saved energy, followed by eco-driving activities in the transport sector. However, although these results provide good insight in the effectiveness of public spending, the future choice of measures, which will be given priority in awarding the financial support, should not be based on government cost figures only – benefits in terms of improved living and working conditions and economic development should be accounted as well. Hence, the future work of the authors will focus on benefits and costs evaluation of energy efficiency improvements from the whole society point of view.

energy efficiency; financial incentives

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