What are green investments?

What are EE/RE investments?

If you want to optimise your production chains, improve productivity and quality, and boost your competitiveness, you can do so by investing in modern and efficient technologies.

If you want to reduce your energy consumption and costs, you can do so by improving your building insulation, replacing your lighting system and improving your heating or cooling system.

If you want to reduce electricity costs, or minimise your costs for heating your premises or heating water, you can do so by using energy from renewable sources such as solar panels and biomass heating systems.

Energy efficiency (EE) investments:

Energy efficiency investments are investments in machinery and equipment that use technologies that achieve a certain level of output using less energy (heat, light, kinetic) or increase output without consuming more energy. In both cases, emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere can be reduced.

What are the benefits of energy efficiency investments?

  • Energy efficiency in businesses and industry can provide financial benefits through reducing energy bills.
  • Energy efficiency helps lower greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants, and thereby improves our environment.
  • Businesses benefit from energy efficiency through improved corporate citizenship, better community and customer relations, increased staff productivity and product output, reduced maintenance costs and improved workplace health and safety.

Why do we need to be energy efficient?

  • Energy consumption has grown incredibly fast over the last few decades. We are in danger of using up the planet’s natural resources, destroying vital habitats and polluting the air we need to breathe.
  • Energy efficiency is a way of managing and limiting this growth in energy consumption, so that we can save wildlife habitats, safeguard the planet, and ensure that there is energy left for future generations.

Renewable energy (RE) investments:

Renewable energy investments are investments in machinery and equipment that generate and/or consume energy resources that are inexhaustible within human time scales or which can be restored quickly. This includes sunlight, geothermal heat, wind, tides, water, and various forms of biomass. The advantage of these resources is that they are available in nearly unlimited quantities and can reduce dependence on traditional resources. Their use does not pollute the environment. What are the benefits of most renewable energy investments?

  • One major advantage of using renewable energy is that it is sustainable and will therefore not run out within human time scales.
  • Renewable energy facilities generally require less maintenance than traditional generators. Their fuel is derived from natural and available resources, which reduces operating costs.
  • Even more importantly, renewable energy produces little or no waste products, such as carbon dioxide or other chemical pollutants, so it has a minimal impact on the environment.
  • Renewable energy projects can also bring economic benefits to many regions, as most projects are located far from large urban centres and suburbs of the capital cities. These economic benefits may arise from the increased use of local services as well as tourism.

Why is renewable energy so important?

  • The goal in using renewable energy sources is to reduce the negative environmental effects associated with non-renewable energy sources such as coal and natural gas.
  • Opting to use a renewable energy source will not only translate into cost savings for you over the long haul, but will also help protect the environment from the fossil fuel emissions resulting from non-renewable energy sources.

Energy services:

Working with energy service companies (ESCOs) is an effective mechanism for implementing energy and CO2 reduction projects. ESCOs present a comprehensive plan to maximise energy savings while meeting the client’s specific facility requirements. ESCOs engineer and design the project to include multiple conservation measures and to account for interactions among the installed measures.

What are typical ESCO services?

  • ESCOs provide investment grade audits (the most detailed energy audit), which analyse the financial aspects of energy savings and the return on investment from potential changes or upgrades.
  • ESCOs engineer projects of appropriate size and scope. In addition, they procure and install the equipment as well as monitor and verify energy savings for as long as the client wishes often the entire contract term.
  • If requested, ESCOs provide ongoing operations and maintenance savings. They prepare reports for the customer detailing energy savings and a reconciliation plan if energy savings were to fall below projections.

Why consider an ESCO?

  • ESCOs facilitate energy savings without the need for experience or technical expertise at the level of the sub-project/client. ESCOs implement energy savings or energy efficiency measures, which are connected to a savings guarantee.

Typical green investments of the programme:

Investment group Examples 
Heating, ventilation and air conditioning
  • Gas boiler for heating and/or hot water
  • Condensing boiler for heating and/or hot water
  • Heat pumps
  • Air conditioning split unit
  • Air conditioning VRF system with multi-split
  • Ventilation
Lighting
  • Efficient lighting systems
Process heating
  • Steam boiler for industrial purposes
Process cooling
  • Commercial cooling appliances
  • Cooling chambers
  • Freezing chambers
Building envelope
  • Building insulation of walls, roofs and floors
  • Window and door installation
Food processing equipment
  • Industrial mixers
  • Bakery ovens
  • Food production lines
Industrial production machines
  • CNC machines (e.g. lathe, cutting)
  • Production lines
Transport
  • Fuel-to-gas switch
IT equipment

  • Printers
  • Server equipment
  • Monitors
Other EE measures
  • Technical medical equipment
Solar energy
  • Solar PV systems
  • Solar water heating systems
Biomass energy
  • Biogas plants
Hydro energy
  • Water turbines
Wind energy
  • Wind turbines
Geothermal energy
  • Geothermal heat pumps