€158 mln earmarked for households and businesses

The Ministry of Energy, Commerce and Industry on Thursday announced a range of programmes to support households and businesses, worth €158 million in total, scheduled for launch throughout 2022.

During a presentation of the ministry’s funding plans for the year, Minister Natasa Pilides said that the ‘ambitious programme’ that started in 2021 will continue for a second year.

“In 2021, we announced plans worth €130 million for the restart of the economy,” Pilides said.

“We continue just as strongly in 2022 with announcements of new projects with a total budget of €158 million,” she added.

The minister explained that of that amount, €100 million have been allocated to business programmes, €49 million for household energy upgrades, and €9 million for local authorities’ energy upgrades.

The first programme, which aims to support the creation, modernisation and digital upgrading of businesses involved in the processing or trading of agricultural products, will begin accepting applications on February 24.

“This scheme is part of the effort for the technological upgrading of companies and the transition to a green, circular and digital economy,” the ministry said.

This will be followed by a scheme to help businesses become more energy efficient. The scheme will be launched in March and have a budget of €40 million in total.

In May, a scheme with a budget between €10 and €20 million will be launched for businesses seeking to upgrade or improve their digital infrastructure.

A support scheme for large manufacturing companies worth €7 million will be launched in July.

The last two business-related schemes involve the provision of consulting services to small-to-medium-sized companies (SMEs), with a budget of €5 million, and the promotion of the circular economy, with the latter initiative having a budget of €13.3 million.

The first scheme will be launched in September, while the second one will be launched towards the end of the year.

Regarding households and local authorities, the ministry announced a total of six programmes.

The first programme, already running since December of 2021, was created for the replacement of energy-consuming household appliances by vulnerable households.

The €5 million scheme has received more than 3,150 applications up until now.

Between April and May, a scheme worth €7.3 million will be launched for the installation of photovoltaics and roof insulation. It will also include virtual net metering.

A scheme worth €450,000 will run between March and April for the installation or replacement of solar water heaters.

During the same period of time, a scheme worth €1.5 million will be launched for the installation of a solar system to charge electric vehicles.

In the second half of the year, a massive programme worth €35 million will be launched to improve household energy efficiency.

Finally, a €9 million scheme for the improvement of local authorities’ energy efficiency will be launched in March.