GRE-Liège is cooperating with eeef on Technical Assistance for energy efficiency upgrades of public authority buildings in the province of Liège

Liège – The Groupement de Redéploiement Economique of Liege (GRE-Liège), representing ten public authorities located in the province of Liege, will receive Technical Assistance funds to enhance energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy (RE) by pooling smaller projects, thereby removing technical, administrative and financial barriers that hinder public institutions to realise green projects. This Technical Assistance programme aims at developing the launch of both light and deep retrofit projects through EPC models for a minimum of 90 public buildings, such as schools, administrative buildings and historic sites, as well as the upgrade of street lighting systems belonging to the different public authorities. With an investment volume of approx. EUR43m, the ambitious EE/RE-project has envisaged both energy savings and a reduction in GHG emissions of 50%.

90 buildings have been already identified based on pre-feasibility studies conducted by EnergySud, the research unit from the University of Liège. The initial results need to be confirmed, as part of this Technical Assistance programme, with detailed audits and technical studies. Selecting the buildings and bundling them in buildings pools across different authorities will be one of the main steps of the Technical Assistance works.

Aware of environmental challenges to be raised in the next decades and the role that public authorities have to play, GRE-Liège organised a workshop to share best practices to finance energy building retrofits in January 2014. The workshop’s outcome was the decision to launch this retrofit project gathering the Province of Liège, eight municipalities and the Airport of Liège as well as further municipalities in a second phase. The extension of this project could include up to 150 public buildings increasing the investment volume to EUR 94m and contributing to further energy savings and GHG emission reductions.

GRE-Liège is the development agency for the Province of Liège, the third largest urban area in Belgium including the City of Liège. In addition, GRE-Liège is an incubator for large development projects by conducting research, strategy analyses as well as feasibility studies and the development of innovative financing for urban retrofitting. Within this Technical Assistance cooperation with eeef, GRE-Liège will coordinate all contracting aspects and create a dedicated structure supporting the public authorities to launch their retrofit projects.

The European Energy Efficiency Fund (eeef) S.A., SICAV-SIF is a “société d’investissement à capital variable” governed by Luxembourg law and was initiated by the European Commission in cooperation with the European Investment Bank. The initial capitalization provided by the European Commission was increased with contributions from the sponsors European Investment Bank, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti as well as the Investment manager Deutsche Bank.