Award-Winning Project Saves Energy and Reduces Environmental Impacts in Croatia

Croatians can all breathe a little easier – particularly if they live in Novigrad. A coastal town of some 2,300 people, Novigrad was among the first in Croatia to benefit from a new program aimed at improving energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the country.

 

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As part of the Croatia Energy Efficiency project, the National Power Utility Energy Service Company (HEP ESCO) worked with the town to implement a 2 million kuna (USD 400,000) project that refurbished an obsolete and inefficient public lighting system with modern equipment, and restored part of the system that had been out of service.

The modernization included replacing old light bulbs and lamps with more efficient ones, and substituting obsolete mercury lights with more efficient sodium lights. The project also reduced light pollution by installing dimming controls to reduce energy consumption in late night hours when traffic intensity is at its lowest. It is estimated that the reduced energy consumption will in turn reduce pollutant emissions released during energy production, and that the project will reduce Novigrad’s energy costs by approximately 70,000 kuna a year, an equivalent of $14,000.

“The project in Novigrad is significant, as even such small projects help in opening up the Croatian market for energy services and demonstrate to clients and other stakeholders in Croatia the importance and opportunities of energy efficiency, in terms of benefits to the environment, as well as in the reduction of operating and maintenance costs.” said Ms. Gordana Lucic, the Managing Director of the Croatian HEP ESCO and the project manager of the Croatia Energy Efficiency project

Co-financed by a World Bank loan and a Global Environment Facility grant, the Croatia Energy Efficiency project aims to build on successful projects like the one in Novigrad, with the goal of establishing Croatia’s small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) as leading actors in the country’s energy efficiency market.

“The project aims to demonstrate that energy efficiency projects are profitable over a period of five to eight years, as this is generally considered to be the lifetime of energy efficiency measures or the period during which investment repayments through savings are expected, and that ESCO companies can be successful in doing business independently,” said Peter Johansen, World Bank Team Leader of the Energy Efficiency Project. “So far, several projects in the areas of public lighting, buildings such as schools, hospitals, universities, and hotels, as well as industry and energy supply systems have been completed. The project is expected to eliminate 960,000 tons of CO2.”

In recognition of their contribution of the development of a new energy efficiency market in Croatia, aimed at creating business opportunities and benefiting the environment, HEP ESCO was recently awarded a prestigious prize by the European Energy Service Initiative for being the ‘Best Energy Service Provider in Europe.’