Pilot incentives for energy efficiency - SEEK
The SEEK (Subsidies for Energy Efficiency in Kosovo) project provides essential support in order to strengthen the Government of Kosovo’s efforts in the following fields: (1) Reducing domestic consumption vis-à-vis the reduction in energy costs in the housing sector, and (2) supporting the uptake and increasing the competitiveness of the Kosovan energy service market. A stimulus can be expected for the increased awareness among homeowners of EE benefits, the creation of HOAs that actively demand EE retrofits, the increasing presence of well-qualified engineers and domestic (gender mainstreamed) engineering companies combined with the availability of EE technology products in the country. Additional positive implications can be expected for enhanced involvement of local banks providing opportunities for providing much needed credit to the sector. The project works in the following tasks: Providing incentives for EE in residential sector (HER and AER intervention packages), and ensuring Equal Economic Opportunities in the Energy Sector (Women Energy Entrepreneur Technical Assistance and Grant (WEE) Intervention Package). The project primarily targets electricity consumption for heating in Households (Household Energy Efficiency Retrofits/ HER) and Apartment Buildings (Apartment Building Efficiency Retrofits/ AER) to reduce both the incidents of outages and needs for expensive imported energy in a wider sense. However, the project interventions will also provide benefits outside heating season, e.g. improved building insulation will help keep buildings cooler in summer and thereby reduce the consumption of energy used for air-conditioning.
In regard to the Women Energy Entrepreneur component, the main objectives are to increase the participation of women in the energy sector, and for women entrepreneurs to benefit from EE investments. In addition, the project works on several crosscutting, activities of Gender and Social Inclusion, Environmental Health and Safety, Behavioral Change and Outreach and Monitoring and Learning which are incorporated in our project set-up.