1020 applicants will receive 200 million from the Green Savings Program

Plzen - A total of 1020 applications have been received so far for the Green Savings program. Compared to the first month of July this year, the number of applications in September increased by 450 percent. Applicants will thus receive almost 200 million crowns from the state, which generates investments of about 450 million crowns. At the real estate, construction, and investment opportunities fair Finpex, Irena Plocková from the State Environmental Fund said this to ČTK.
    "Another 200 applications are in progress and another 200 are on the way," she added. Nearly three-quarters of the applicants so far wanted money for the insulation of family houses, others for solar panels for water heating, for heat pumps, and least for biomass boilers.
    "So far, most of the support is directed to the Moravian-Silesian Region, followed by North Bohemia, and third is Prague," Plocková stated. According to her, the SFŽP is managing the applications. The slow start was, according to her, caused by problems with the information system. In the first month of July, 107 applicants received 17 million crowns in support.
    Since September 1, the fund has begun accepting applications for the insulation of apartment panel buildings, of which there are currently only a few. Municipalities can apply only for apartment buildings that they own. The SFŽP has so far recorded few requests from municipalities because, according to Plocková, they have an increasingly smaller number of apartments. Municipalities cannot apply for the insulation of schools from the Green Savings program but must use the Operational Program Environment.
    For the Green Savings program, from which applicants receive 40 percent support for the costs of projects, at least ten billion crowns will be allocated this year. "We are not suffering from a lack of resources; the funds are ready," Plocková added.
    On Wednesday, the Minister of the Environment, Ladislav Miko, signed an agreement for the sale of 20 million emission credits for carbon dioxide, from which the program is financed. Already in the spring, the state sold 40 million tons of carbon dioxide in this way.