Indirect financing opportunities

Policies and regulations

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Danish National Building Foundation 

The Danish Government will spend 30 billion Danish croons (4 billion EUR) on green renovations in the social housing sector as the first step towards green recovery. The programme aims to raise the standard of older properties to reach contemporary energy standards, insulating exterior walls, roofs and ceilings, and replacing old windows with energy-efficient ones, to make substantial heat savings (between 30% and 40%).  

In practical terms, the Danish scheme will cut 50,000 tonnes of CO2 and reduce energy consumption by approximately 500 gigawatt hours, which corresponds to the heat consumption of 40,000 typical apartments. The scheme also has positive social implications. For example, due to the number of units being renovated, it will help to deliver “accessible” housing (e.g. old-age friendly) at around one third of the usual price. It will also get thousands of construction sector workers and apprentices back into the labour market.  

The Foundation for the Promotion of Low-Cost Housing: Costa Rica19  

The Foundation for the Promotion of Low- Cost Housing (FUPROVI) was created as a result of efforts on the part of the Costa Rican government and the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) to bring new housing tools to low-income populations.  

FUPROVI represented a new model of NGOs that would play a novel role in the housing improvement efforts of low-income households, serving as a liaison to both low-income groups and government housing agencies. The agency served as one of the “Authorized Entities” that administer the national housing subsidy, combining functions of ad-hoc underwriter for loans, financial intermediary for the subsidy, and facilitator and technical advisor on the housing construction process.  

Spanish National Programme on Energy Rehabilitation of buildings (PREE)20  

An interesting complement is the Spanish national programme on energy rehabilitation of buildings – Programa Rehabilitacion Energetica de Edificios (PREE) – with a budget of EUR 300 million, that forwards funding to public housing and energy communities. An important aspect of the PREE, in addition to its positive effects on improving energy efficiency and the environment, is its social scope: special attention is paid to renovation in buildings that accommodate vulnerable groups affected by energy poverty. In line with the National Strategy against Energy Poverty 2019-2024, additional aid is granted for renovation in housing buildings whose owners have been granted the social bonus – the “bono social electrico” is as a public mechanism to address energy poverty – as determined in the selection process carried out by the regions.  

The city of Barcelona offers grants for up to 55 per cent of the cost of renovations for solar energy generation (both for individual applications and those submitted by a community of owners), and for up to 50 per cent of the cost for comprehensive energy improvements. The Spanish Government has approved a EUR 20 million (USD 22.5 million) subsidy scheme to support the installation of solar PV capacity on the Canary Islands (Solares en Canaria – SolCan). The SolCan programme for 2020 was expected to spread the public funds across projects that are likely to bring 150 MW of PV power to the archipelago, according to the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge.  

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