Financing energy renovations of houses for vulnerable citizens endangered by energy poverty

As part of the energy renovation programme that runs periodically over the last 10 years, in 2020, a dedicated call (Financiranje energetske obnove obiteljskih kuća za ranjive skupine građana u opasnosti od energetskog siromaštva) was published targeting specifically vulnerable citizens living in energy poverty. Energy poor status was proved by presenting the proof that the applicants are recipients of the social benefits ("zajamčena minimalna naknada"), and the recommendation of the local center for social care.

The programme subsidized investments in 4 categories:

• Doors/windows replacement.
• Thermal envelope upgrade.
• Installation of renewable energy heating /cooling systems (wood pellets/pyrolitic heating system, heat pump systems, solar water heaters, air recouperators).

Overall budget of the programme was 32M HRK (~4.3M EUR). From that budget only approximately half funds were actually allocated. Some of the challenges were: extensive documentation required, issues with legality and ownership of the building, information flow to the target groups about the programme and the overall lack of capacity of the target group to apply for this type of subsidy and set the energy renovation in motion. It is uncertain when will the call be renewed for 2021 and what will be the budget and the criteria.

The programme could be considered a good practice because it's specifically targeting energy poor citizens, which is a target group that was mostly omitted in the previous subsidy calls (up to 60% investment subsidy) since these households could not afford to invest even 40% towards energy efficiency improvements. Even the use of "energy poverty" as a term in the program could be considered a small success.

It overall benefited the vulnerable and general population.