About energy efficiency

Energy efficiency is a key issue in the Bank’s countries of operation as they are much more energy intensive than in the EU.  All the countries exceed the EU average energy intensity and some need around five times as much energy. One reason for this is that companies and institutions are facing increasing and unsustainable energy costs as energy prices increase towards international levels.  

• Energy intensity in the Bank’s main regions  (0.3Mb)

High energy intensity can:

• drain public and private sector finances
• create social hardship
• weaken the competitive advantage of private companies
• increase the environmental cost through high levels of greenhouse gas emissions

The Energy efficiency team

The EBRD is the only IFI with a specialised Energy efficiency team.  

The role of the team is to:

• develop specialised energy efficiency investment mechanisms such as ESCOs  (0.1Mb) and energy efficiency credit lines
• identify and implement industrial energy efficiency opportunities with other Bank clients
• develop opportunities to sell carbon credits from EBRD funded projects, including the Netherlands EBRD Carbon Fund
• promote and develop renewable energy projects, in collaboration with the Power and energy team
  

The team comprises nine professionals, including two funded with assistance from the Government of the Netherlands, one funded by the Government of Sweden and one funded by the Government of Italy.  Members of the team have backgrounds in public finance, investment banking, accountancy, carbon financing and energy efficiency engineering.

Strategy

The Bank’s strategy in the Energy efficiency sector is to support mechanisms that develop and finance energy efficiency projects. In addition, it aims to assist its clients to identify and develop energy efficiency opportunities within their operations.

Specifically, the Bank will aim to:

- Provide direct finance to projects of a significant scale which save energy. The projects can be located in either the public or private sector and concern generation, transmission/distribution or end-use.  In particular:

• Industrial projects in energy-intensive industries
• Cogeneration projects, including on-site industrial cogeneration projects
• Existing or new ESCOs.  In particular, the Bank supports ESCO projects which target social facilities, such as schools or hospitals.

- Support the development of sustainable mechanisms using local banks to provide financing to smaller projects. This can be in the form of dedicated credit lines or risk sharing.

- Support innovative financing vehicles e.g. finance companies or equity funds targeting energy efficiency and/or renewable energy.

- Help monetise carbon credits arising from emission-reduction projects. This improves the bankability of emission-cutting projects such as energy efficiency; renewable energy; fuel switching; methane capture; etc.

The Bank can support energy efficiency investments in power and district heating. More information is available under Power & Energy Utilities and Municipal and Environmental Infrastructure.

Technical co-operation support

Technical co-operation programmes provide important resources to enable the EBRD to promote and develop energy efficiency investments.  

The EBRD is pleased to acknowledge the support of the following donors:

• The Central European Initiative which is funding energy audits and energy management training in the CEI countries (Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Ukraine)
• The Government of Greece which is funding energy audits and energy management training in the Bank’s countries of operation
• The Dutch Government which has funded energy audits arranged by the Bank in Russia the development of a pipeline of Clean Development Mechanism projects for the Caucasus and Central Asia
• The Kozloduy International Decommissioning Support Fund (“KIDSF”) which provides support in the context of the closure of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant in Bulgaria.  The KIDSF funds Technical Co-operation assistance for preparation of rational energy utilisation investments and incentives to companies for implementation of such projects.

Further information

• Can the Poor Pay for Power? The affordabilility of electricity in SE Europe  (1.2Mb)
• Transition Report 2001: Improving Energy Efficiency in Energy Conversion and Use
• Industrial Energy Out-Sourcing  (0.3Mb)
• ESCO for Public Entities end users - concept paper  (0.2Mb)
• Presentation of activities  (0.5Mb)
• Local government sector presentation  (0.2Mb)