The new programs Savings that come in the next period and concern vulnerable groups of citizens, households regardless of income criteria and tourist businesses as well as those concerning the energy upgrade of schools and the recycling of devices were presented at a special day in the context of the 88th TIF at the stand of the Ministry of Environment and Energy.

In his greeting, the Minister of Environment and Energy, Theodoros Skylakakis, emphasized the importance of saving energy, which, as he said, “is a huge investment in the implementation of the programs and we must be as efficient as possible.

What we imagine that corresponding “I save” will exist even for the last house is not real, the European resources we have today will not exist forever and they are in fact huge today and the subsidies we give are very large, but every year that will pass, they will become fewer.

Therefore, we should make the best use of them, implement some major reforms, find our energy-weak fellow citizens and not just income-weak ones,” said the minister, among other things.

The Deputy Minister of Environment and Energy Alexandra Sdoukou presented the new programs with the citizen at the center as she said, starting with the Save Program for vulnerable households, i.e. households with an individual income of up to €5,000 or a family income of up to €10,000.

This Program responds, as the Deputy Minister said, to a real need that they diagnosed that savings programs benefit the most vulnerable, that is, those who are most exposed to energy costs.

The program has a total budget of approximately €125 million, of which €50 million concerns vulnerable households in Thessaly that were affected by the floods and whose houses have been marked as yellow. The subsidy rate will amount to 95% and especially for the vulnerable households of Thessaly to 100%, with a maximum intervention budget of up to €25,000.

I save for everyone with …gravity in Thessaly

It is also being prepared, as stated by Ms. Sdougou and Exochiomou, for all households in the Territory, without taking into account income criteria. The total budget will be, as the deputy minister said, approximately €110 million, of which €30 million will concern households in Thessaly that were affected by the floods and whose houses have been designated as yellow. The subsidy rate will amount to 50% and especially for the households of Thessaly to 80%, with a maximum budget of 25,000.

I save on tourism

The specific program will concern businesses that are active in the tourist accommodation sector in mountainous areas, as defined by the Hellenic Statistical Service, as explained by the Deputy Minister.

The total budget will be 10 million. €, of which €1 million concerns buildings that have been classified as traditional-preservable.

Continue to Recycle – Change Water Heater

Ms. Sdoukou spoke about the success of the Recycle-Change water heater program, announcing its continuation. As she said, the new program will concern all households in the Territory and priority will be given to the runner-up households of the first cycle of the program, who will be informed via email correspondence and will be given a specific period of time to submit an application. Once the time period for the submission of applications by the priority households is completed, the remaining budget will be available until it is used up for the submission of applications by the remaining households. The total budget will be approximately €170 million. The program will concern the recycling of old energy-consuming water heaters and their replacement with solar water heaters. The subsidy rate will be from 60% for vulnerable households to 50% for higher incomes up to 30,000 euros.

The School Buildings Upgrade program is coming soon

The 5th new program that comes out immediately concerns the Energy Upgrade of Primary and Secondary School Buildings, Kindergartens and Daycare Centers. It concerns all public school buildings and kindergartens (as a program) and kindergartens (as a second distinct program) in the Territory. The order of eligibility will be determined by grade days, so the emphasis is on those areas and schools that need the intervention the most. The total budget will be €40 million, of which €30 million is for the program for schools and kindergartens and €10 million for the kindergarten program, noted the deputy minister. A necessary condition, Ms. Sdoukou clarified, is that the buildings must have been built before 2000 and have not been upgraded in terms of energy until now. The eligible interventions will concern the costs of thermal insulation, frames and heat pump installation

Program for Replacing Heating Systems with Heat Pumps for Households

The condition will be the recycling of the old heating system. The total budget will amount to €60 million and will be subsidized 50% for the purchase of the heat pump (purchase amount up to €5,000) and 50% for the execution of the required works (amount of services provided up to €500).

The programs to date

Analyzing the data and the performance of the programs that have already entered millions of homes and businesses that have been included since 2019 through the Save programs, Ms. Sdoukou stated:

• SAVE INDEPENDENT: 34,716 homes with a total subsidy of €829 million

• SAVE 2021: 71,875 homes with a total subsidy of €808 million

• SAVE 2023 : 32,371 homes with a total subsidy of €365 million

• I SAVE I RENOVATE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE: 6,670 of which 3,834 also chose the renovation part tool, with our own total subsidy of €85 million. This is 146,000 homes. If we say that, on average, they concern a family of three

we have the figure of approximately 450,000 people who now live in energy-enhanced houses. Almost half a million people.

Finally, he noted that the actions created jobs for tens of thousands of people, stating that.

• For example, approximately €460 million have been disbursed in advances for EXOIKONOMO 2021

• And SAVE 2023 creates a turnover in the market of around €600 million, while the fees of the engineers alone are estimated at €70 million

Two more Programs

• The PV STEGI program, the well-known Photovoltaics on the Roof, has benefited thousands of households and farmers in order to install photovoltaic panels of up to 10.8 kW and significantly reduce the cost of the energy they consume. 14,585 applications were submitted from households, of which 2,539 concern vulnerable households, and 847 applications from farmers. We are talking about 50 to 60 thousand people. Again, a whole big city!

• The Photovoltaics in the Field Program. The program came out in the Spring of this year and absorbed the budget of €30 million in about 20 days. A total of 5400 applications were submitted with a corresponding public expenditure of €55 million.

The programs that ..are running today

Today, two savings programs are active for businesses, mainly the smallest ones:

This is about Changing Devices in Businesses, which we released in the spring, with a total public expenditure of 105.6 million, a program financed by resources from the Recovery and Resilience Fund. To date, a total of 2,264 complete applications have been submitted, while an additional 4,297 are being processed. Full applications cover 21.5% of the total budget. Equipment is financed, such as heat pumps or intelligent energy management systems, but also general costs of energy saving interventions that are necessary to achieve the energy goal of the program (e.g. replacement of other production equipment)

The second program that came out again in the Spring concerns the Improvement of the energy efficiency of companies in the tertiary sector, with a total public expenditure of €176.75 million. And this is financed by resources from the Recovery and Resilience Fund. It is aimed at companies active in the trade, services, catering, bakery and confectionery industries, as well as tourism.

To date, a total of 1,340 complete applications have been submitted to the program, covering approximately 60% of the total budget.

The deputy minister also referred to a last program, Produce E-green, with the aim of strengthening the green industry with an emphasis on new technologies, research, development and innovation, with funding from the Recovery Fund.

A total of 36 companies joined the program, of which 15 have already officially received the act of acceptance of their application, covering a budget of 150 million euros.

Among these 15 proposals are already included small and medium enterprises for the production of solar water heaters, production of photovoltaic panels, recycling and recovery of critical materials of photovoltaic panels thus strengthening the circular economy, production of cables, etc. In fact, 5 of the above industries are based and operate in Thessaloniki and 2 in Katerini.