The role and importance of ESCO in financing renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in order to mitigate the effects of climate change

Project ID: HU01-0026-COOPER-B2-2017

The project will be achieved by LENERG Energy Agency Nonprofit Llc. (HU) and the Donor Partner, International Development Norway (NO). The main goal of the project is to solve the financing problems of the public sector (e.g. there is no financial source available for RES and EE projects; only refundable source is available – after 2020 the trends will shift in the EU towards refundable projects) in renewable energy and energy efficiency projects which can mitigate the effects of climate change, and shall be no burden the investments for them. In Hajdú-Bihar county and the rest of the country as well several settlements are struggling with financing their everyday operation, not to start RES and EE investment, or they cannot finance own-contribution in a project. A non-profit ESCO could be a solution. In Hungary ESCOs are not so popular due to lack of trust in these companies. In the project we would like to study how Norwegian ESCOs are operating, how popular are these companies and what the level of trust is. We also would like to analyse how we can transfer the Good Practices into the Hungarian system in order to improve and set back the trust towards these companies. This can contribute to the increasing number of RES and EE investments not only the in the more developed area of the country, but the underdeveloped areas as well, therefore it also contribute to the fight against the negative effects of climate change. We can also pay public organizations’ and people’ affected by the investments attention to the climate change and sensitize them towards the problems, hence they will commit themselves to start RES and EE investments. In the project we will organize one study trips in Hungary, one in Norway connected with workshops. Besides one of the result of the project will be an expert study, in which Hungarian and Norwegian situation will be compared and analyse the possibilities of transfer of Good Practices.