OREANDA-NEWS. April 18, 2016. From today, apartment building managers and other representatives are invited to register their interest to participate in the energy efficiency program in which it will not only be possible to thermally insulate apartment buildings in the coming years but also carry out other energy efficiency improvement work, such as replacing the heating system. Latvia’s leading bank, Swedbank, offers everyone who’s interested to register on the website www.swedbank.lv in order to be among the first ones to receive information about the launch of the program.

It should be noted that since April 18 consultations to customers about the terms and conditions of the apartment building energy efficiency program, about support receiving opportunities and about document preparation are already provided by the development financial institution ALTUM. Consultations will be available to customers in the ALTUM regional centres throughout Latvia and they will be free of charge.

In March this year, the Cabinet approved a new support programme for improving energy efficiency in multi-apartment residential buildings. Over 166 million euros will be available in support for renovation of apartment buildings during the time period from 2016 to 2023. Elaboration of the conditions for launching the program is in progress and Swedbank participates in the process of elaborating these conditions. The elaboration process is expected to be finished in mid-June.

“Increasing energy efficiency in apartment buildings is extremely important for improving the quality of life and reducing expenses for people in Latvia. We, therefore, very much welcome this program and are working on the conditions and the process in order to take part in it. At the same time, we have started gathering information about interest among people in Latvia in order to ensure the availability of potential financial to all those interested,” says Ilze Kukute, the Head of the State and Municipal Customer Banking Department at Swedbank.

In the previous energy efficiency program period from 2011 to 2015, financing from Swedbank has enabled carrying out 210 heat insulation projects in Latvia, in total worth over 40 million euros.