January 31 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian businesses in the manufacturing, commerce, services and tourism sectors can start applying for grants totalling over 235 million levs ($130.2 million/120.2 million euro) to improve the energy efficiency of building stock, the regional development and public works ministry said on Tuesday.
The competitive financing mechanism, which is funded through the national EU-approved Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), targets savings of at least 30% of primary energy consumption with a minimum consumption class B, the ministry said in a press release.
Applicants are able to submit projects for approval by June 15.
The measure is expected to finance the adoption of integrated, sustainable energy efficiency projects at 250 buildings owned by local companies including micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), with maximum project financing to vary between 100,000 levs and 1.5 million levs depending on the size of the business.
Companies in the manufacturing sector will absorb about a third of the total funding amount, or more than 77.6 million levs, with the balance of over 157.5 million levs to be shared among businesses in commerce, services and tourism, the ministry added.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)