Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds, as the Operator of the "Energy and Climate Change" Program, financed as part of the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area for the period 2014-2021, hosted a Delegation of the Financial Mechanism Office and Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate, which is also a donor partner in the "Energy of Climate Change" Program.
In the period from February 5 to 7, 2024, members of the delegation, led by State Secretary Domagoj Mikulić and Director-General of the Directorate for European Territorial Cooperation and Head of the PO Stella Arneri, together with the Program Manager and Program Partner (Energy Institute Hrvoje Požar), carried out a whole series of activities to inform them about the previous achievements in the implementation of both projects and the "Energy and Climate Change" Program itself. For this purpose, six field visits to projects in the final implementation phase were organized from February 5 to 6, 2024. Concrete results were presented during the visit, and meetings were held with the Project Managers in the cities of Velika Gorica, Lipik, Virovitica and Bjelovar and in the municipalities of Topusko and Andrijaševci. At the meetings, among other things, the challenges faced by the project holders during their implementation were discussed, as well as the possibilities of capitalizing on the results of individual projects in the future.
During the project visit, State Secretary Mikulić emphasized the importance of cooperation with the countries of the European Economic Area and pointed out that the "Energy and Climate Change" Program aims to increase the use of technologies with lower carbon emissions and increase the supply of energy from renewable sources. "The total source of the budget is EUR 20 million, of which EUR 17 million is co-financed from the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area, while the national co-financing amounts to the remaining EUR 3 million. With this generous amount, we co-finance 39 projects, of which 19 projects for increasing the capacity for solar energy production, three projects for the production of energy from the sea, three projects for increasing the capacity for geothermal energy production, ten projects for the preparation of technical documentation for the use of geothermal energy, two projects for the creation of a database of deep and shallow geothermal energy and two projects from a limited call for the allocation of additional funds", the State Secretary pointed out.
Today, the delegation will also visit the EIHP building, which is being renovated to establish a national nZEB training center financed by the same Program.
You can read more about the visit and the projects on the MRRFEU website..
