Bizkaia extends subsidy lines for actions to improve energy efficiency and combat climate change

16/12/2021

In the coming year the Provincial Council of Bizkaia is to earmark one million Euros for funding actions by municipal and supra-municipal authorities in regard to climate change and the energy transition. This aid is part of the Provincial Council's strategy to form a territory and a society resilient to the climate change emergency and help to achieve environmentally sustainable socio-economic development.

Under these subsidies, €100,000 is earmarked specifically for studies of all kinds with a view to drawing up plans to tackle climate change and energy at municipal and supra-municipal level, such as the Climate and Sustainable Energy Action Plan, the Sustainable Energy Action Plan, the Municipal Energy Plan and other climate change and/or energy-related plans, plus diagnostic studies and assessments in the same field. The maximum subsidy granted to individual municipal and supra-municipal councils for such studies is €15,000.

A further €300,000 is earmarked for funding action concerned with street lighting, seeking to reduce electricity consumption by street-lamps, to install permanent remote energy consumption monitoring systems and to draw up energy studies and analyses for street lighting projects.

Aid will also be provided for actions to reduce electricity and/or fuel consumption in public buildings. Accordingly, €400,000 will be set aside to subsidise climate control and water heating systems based on combined heat and power/trigeneration, interior lighting, the use of renewable resources to obtain savings, the installation of permanent energy monitoring systems and the drawing up of energy-related studies and analyses that result in practical projects.

Municipal and supra-municipal councils can obtain up to €76,000 for the former and up to €133,000 for the latter.

The remaining €200,000 are to be used in a new line introduced with this call: the purchase of electric and plug-in-in hybrid vehicles and the installation of charging stations. The vehicles in question may include various types (utility vehicles, cargo vehicles, cleaning vehicles, etc) and must belong to the fleets of the relevant municipal/supra--municipal councils. The charging stations must be rated at least as semi--rapid. The maximum aid provided to individual municipal councils under this scheme is €20,000.

The deadline for submitting requests for these aids is 28 February next.