“The extraordinary activeness of industrial enterprises when submitting project implementation plans for the deployment of renewable energy sources shows that we are ready for the transition towards a climate-neutral economy and that business understands the value of this change. Even more of the country’s industrial enterprises will contribute to Lithuania’s sustainability goals and will work more efficiently and enhance their competitiveness by reducing their energy costs,” says Aušrinė Armonaitė, Minister of the Economy and Innovation.
Last year, the Innovation Agency launched a EUR 10 million call for industrial enterprises operating in Central and Western Lithuania to deploy renewable energy sources such as solar power plants, of which EUR 6 million was earmarked for SMEs and EUR 4 million for large enterprises.
The Innovation Agency received a record number of project implementation plans, which was almost four times higher than expected, with 266 manufacturing companies in Central and Western Lithuania seeking to install solar power plants and requesting EUR 38.8 million for their projects. 55 large enterprises requested EUR 9.8 million and 210 SMEs requested EUR 28.8 million.
“The outstanding activeness recorded in this call shows that businesses are well aware of the value of investing in RES. We are proud to have worked with other institutions to find a way to satisfy all the requests and to help all eligible businesses that participated in the call to move towards a climate-neutral economy,” comments Gintarė Kuncaitytė, Head of Investment Assessment of the Innovation Agency.
When preparing their project implementation plans, enterprises had to have carried out a mandatory energy audit in the last 2 years.
“This was an incentive to assess their energy consumption, the payback period of their investments, and calculate the potential cost savings of installing solar modules,” adds Ms Kuncaitytė.
The minimum funding available for a project is EUR 20 000 and the maximum is EUR 300 000. A third of enterprises (31.7 per cent) applied for the maximum funding (EUR 200 000–300 000), just under a third (29.06 per cent) applied for EUR 100 000–200 000, a fifth (21.89 per cent) applied for EUR 50 000–100 000, and just under a fifth (18.11 per cent) applied for the minimum funding of EUR 20 000–50 000.
The funding is allocated in three rounds and EUR 19.94 million has already been distributed. In the first two rounds, EUR 12.11 million has been allocated to 94 SMEs and EUR 7.83 million to 44 large enterprises. The third round will start on 1 September 2023.
The most active participants in the call were manufacturers of timber (15 per cent), food (13.21 per cent), furniture (12.45 per cent) and metal products (10.57 per cent). In total, enterprises from 15 manufacturing sectors submitted project implementation plans to the Innovation Agency.
As much as one third (30.19 per cent) of all project implementation plans were submitted by industrial enterprises in Kaunas county. Enterprises were similarly active in Šiauliai (14.71 per cent), Klaipėda (13.58 per cent) and Panevėžys (12.45 per cent) counties.
Enterprises must start the implementation of their projects within 6 months from the date of signing the contract and complete it within 24 months.
This progress measure is part of the Economic Transformation and Competitiveness Development Programme 2022–2030, managed by the Ministry of the Economy and Innovation of the Republic of Lithuania. The project activities are financed by EU Funds’ Investments.
To strengthen the Lithuanian economy, the Ministry of the Economy and Innovation plans to implement measures totalling almost EUR 1 billion by the end of 2023. Of this amount, EUR 268 million has been earmarked for the greener economy.
All current and forthcoming calls with detailed descriptions and terms are available on the website of the Innovation Agency. The Innovation Agency also provides free advice on starting and growing a business and on choosing the right financing instruments
