EUR 58 mln used by Romanian SMEs for energy efficiency, since 2008

The EBRD, together with partner banks BCR, BRD, Banca Transilvania, CEC Bank, OTP Bank and Raiffeisen Bank have financed in the last 3 years, 80 investments in the energy efficiency segment. Around EUR 58 million have been taken out by Romanian SMEs looking to improve their business through energy efficient solutions.

This was possible through the Energy Efficiency Finance Facility (EEFF), designed by the EBRD and partner banks to address Romania’s energy intensity. The investments made in the last three years by companies brought combined energy savings of 880 GWh per year, which is more than half of the annual household energy consumption of Bucharest. Romania’s capital has 1.4 million households.

The annual CO2 savings resulting from the implementation of energy efficiency solutions stand at around 300.000 tons per year, which is the equivalent of the annual emissions from 200.000 passenger cars.

Based on the success of the EEFF initiative, EBRD and the European Commission have developed a new EUR 60 million facility, called the Romanian SME Sustainable Energy Financing Facility (ROSEFF), targeting SMEs for the 2012-2014 period. The new facility was launched this September and will feature loans extended via participating financial institutions to invest in energy efficiency and small-scale renewable energy projects. BCR is the first bank that joined RoSEFF, taking out an EUR 20 million loan.

The Facilities are part of the Bank’s Sustainable Energy Initiative (SEI), which aims at mitigating the challenges of the climate change and improving energy efficiency and security throughout the EBRD region. Since the initiative’s launch in 2006, the Bank has provided over EUR 468 million for energy efficiency investments in Romania, with total project value of close to EUR 1.8 billion.

This year, the winners of the EU-EBRD Sustainable Energy Excellence Awards 2011 included Avicola Gaesti, in the agriculture sector, that used a loan of EUR 1.1 million to lower energy consumption per egg by 63 percent, while Flexo Graphic used a EUR 1.9 million loan to modernize a printing line. 10 companies were awarded prizes for this year’s edition of the excellence awards.

Ovidiu Posirca