KfW projects

In the year 2004 realization of the project "Heat insulation of buildings for energy saving purposes" has been started. During this project municipalities and communities of apartment owners (cooperative communities of apartment owners, Ltd.) had an opportunity to obtain loan with favorable conditions for complex heat insulation of buildings.

The project "Heat insulation of buildings for energy saving purposes" has been implemented in co-operation with German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, German Development Bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Latvia, Environmental Investment Fund and Hipotēku bank.

In total 5 million euro has been allocated for realization of the project. In the beginning 127 applications for loans has been received and Hipotēku Bank specialists have selected 47 projects to participate in the 2nd stage of competition. Unfortunately many of applicants refused from the idea of project implementation during the preparation process. Main reasons bothering successful realization of the project and loan obtaining were:

• Difficulties in receiving acceptance of 75% apartment owners to start the project, which is necessary, pretending for loans without mortgage,
• Due to different wealth level of apartment owners, it was difficult to organize common activities in loan obtaining,
• Within the project there was planned complex building renovation, which is technically fine, but at the same time is money consuming. Not all of the apartment owners were ready for loan liabilities, which are necessary for financing house renovation in accordance with the program conditions.

Until year 2004 / 2005 heating season there have been completed 5 building renovation projects. And there also have been organized the evaluation of results obtained during the heating season.

• Rīga, Celmu street 5
• Brocēni, Skolas street 21
• Brocēni, Skolas street 23
• Brocēni, Lielcieres street 34
• Brocēni, Lielcieres street 36

In 2005 renovation of two more houses has been finished:

• Liepāja, Ganību street 135/141
• Salacgrīva, Tirgus street 3

During the project complex renovation of building was done and as a result windows have been changed, external walls, ceilings of cellar and top floor have been heat insulated.

Within the framework of the project Environmental Investment fund:

• Provided consultations to the representatives of municipalities about the possibilities of financing,
• Provided informative activities for project popularization,
• Supported municipalities during the project implementation, e.g. procurement process and process of reconstruction,
• Performed environmental improvement monitoring of the implemented project during the loan repayment period.

Within the framework of the project "Heat insulation of buildings for energy saving purposes" the compact disc has been prepared, which summarises all necessary information about technical and economical aspects of house renovation and also includes all the informative materials, distributed during seminars.