The Environmental Fund is renewing loans for public lighting, but cities and municipalities face a higher interest rate.

Municipalities can once again apply for loans from the state Environmental Fund for the modernization and replacement of public lighting.

After the Environmental Fund, which falls under the Ministry of the Environment, removed this area from its loan "specification" last year, street lighting is now returning to the loan program. However, with changed conditions.

As we mapped on Energie-portal.sk, in previous years, cities and municipalities received loans from the Environmental Fund for the modernization of lighting worth millions of euros. The largest supported projects included, for example, the reconstruction of public lighting in Trenčín, for which the city received a loan of approximately 17 million euros. However, several smaller municipalities also succeeded with projects in the order of hundreds of thousands of euros.

How the conditions are now changing

The Ministry of the Environment informed about the re-inclusion of public lighting in the loan specification of the Environmental Fund last week, which thus responded to the pressure from municipalities. The Environmental Fund itself published the document on Tuesday, February 28.

"I assure you that the environmental department under my leadership will support meaningful projects for the efficient and economical modernization of public lighting, which increase the safety of residents, the protection of public and private property, and at the same time contribute to the long-term savings of public funds," said the Minister of the Environment, Tomáš Taraba. The justification for why the Environmental Fund first removed public lighting from the loan program, only to return it to the conditions, was not stated by the ministry in its statement.

According to the published specification, the loan for public lighting can be used by municipalities within the areas of "Increasing the energy efficiency of infrastructure." The condition is that only measures that increase energy efficiency are supported.

The interest rate for loans in this area is set at 2%. In the case of other areas, for example, for loans for water supply and sewerage, it is 0.1%. In the past, municipalities had the opportunity to obtain a loan with a 0.1% interest rate for public lighting as well.

The maximum repayment period is 15 to 20 years, depending on the amount of the loan. The loan can cover 100% of eligible costs. For cities and municipalities, it also applies that loans provided from the Environmental Fund are not included in the total amount of debt under the law on budget rules of local government.

"The advantage compared to the past is that municipalities do not need to submit an energy audit, a lighting technical study or other relevant document containing an overview of the planned savings will be sufficient. The minimum loan amount is 5,000 euros," summarizes the Ministry of the Environment.

Source: www.energie-portal.sk