Singapore establishes energy efficiency grant scheme
Singapore, 06.11.2008 - Binu Parthan
The Singapore National Environmental Agency today announced the establishment of a Grant for Energy Efficient Technologies (Greet) to provide additional encouragement to local companies to address energy efficiency opportunities.
The S$22 million fund is designed to help firms defray the cost of buying green technologies and equipment. Dr Amy Khor, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, acknowledged that investments in energy efficiency can reach millions of dollars and that only a handful of companies have embraced significant energy efficiency practices.
It is her hope that this fund will change the situation. The grant will cover up to 50% of a company’s expenditure, up to a maximum of S$2 million. The Greet facility follows the Energy Efficiency Improvement Assistance scheme that was launched in 2005 to co-finance energy audits. Some 119 projects have accessed this scheme and in combination they could provide annual savings of nearly S$30 million.
The government announced the launch of Greet at the opening of the Singapore Energy Efficiency Investment Forum organised by the Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore (SEAS) with support from REEEP. The forum brought together a cross section of international and regional energy efficiency practitioners who shared their experience with a receptive audience drawn from all sectors of the energy efficiency market.