Taraba: Total of €247 million to Be Allocated to Modernise Heating Plants

Bratislava, 21 September (TASR) - A total of €247 million from the Environmental Fund will be allocated to modernise heating plants in Slovakia, with state-run Teplarensky Holding (MHTH) being one of the main recipients of the funding, Environment Minister Tomas Taraba (a Slovak National Party/SNS nominee), Environmental Fund general director Marek Giba and MHTH general director Adrian Jenco announced at a news conference on Monday. In practice, the modernisation should reduce heat losses and make energy production more environmentally friendly. Taraba specified that the projects are funded through the Modernisation Fund under the Environmental Fund. According to the minister, the first €150 million has already been committed under contract. The Environmental Fund will allocate an additional almost €100 million next year. "We are able to provide €150 million every year, but when we saw how strong the demand was, we didn't want to set a cut-off point that would leave half of the applications without funding," said Taraba. Giba added that the Environmental Fund launched the call in March, with the deadline for submitting projects expiring in June. Jenco of MHTH said the holding company succeeded in nine projects. The total eligible cost of the projects amounts to €50.3 million. Of this, the company received €26.1 million in grants. It will cover the remainder through co-financing. Following the modernisation, the state-run holding company will save more than 37,000 megawatt-hours of electricity annually. In addition, it will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and construct 11 kilometres of new or renovated heat distribution networks. "Under this call, we're going to build technology for high-efficiency combined heat and power generation, the so-called cogeneration unit," explained Jenco. He added that it would be built in Bratislava's borough of Dubravka. The projects also include the renovation of heat distribution networks in Zilina, Martin, and Zvolen. ko/mcs