Making Buildings Energy-Efficient May Be Hindered by Lack of Funds
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National Audit Office of Estonia, Audit Manager of sustainable development, infrastructure, energy, and environment
Estonia’s ambitious plan to renovate buildings to be more energy efficient could have a significant effect because buildings account for the largest share of the final energy consumption (approx. 50%), including households with 22%.
Renovation can help save an average of up to 50% of a building’s heating energy. However, there is a great risk that the plans will be hampered by lack of funds – the total cost of reno-vating all buildings that need a complete overhaul in the period 2021–2030 has increased to an estimated 7.5 billion euro because of rising construction prices. About 45% of this, more than 3 billion euro, would need to be covered by financial support from the state but, in the period 2021–2027, a little over 650 million euro will be granted to support the activities improving the energy efficiency of build-ings.
The pace of renovating apartment buildings with the support of the state has been about 100 buildings per year, but the number required is about 466 buildings per year, and the pace of renovating detached houses is also about four times slower than desired. Central government buildings have also not been renovated in the planned volume in 2019–2022. The renovation of local government buildings receives minimal support, and there are no state incentives for the renovation of non-residential buildings in the private sector.