News

The Environmental Investment Centre (EIC) supports the preparation of energy and climate plans by the local government associations of Tartu, Pärnu, Lääne, Lääne-Viru, and Võru counties, as well as of the local governments of Keila, Narva, Pärnu, Rakvere, and Jõgeva with EUR 400,000. Plans must be completed by the end of 2022.

Estonian-Latvian offshore wind farm project ELWIND is progressing rapidly and has reached to a notable milestone – public procurement for a pre-feasibility study, which aim is to preselect suitable geographical areas for the construction of the wind farm, has been successfully completed.

Currently available waste grants

As of today, 1 September, local governments can apply for a grant from the Environmental Investment Centre (EIC) to buy bio-waste containers and composters. The budget in the application round is EUR 1.455 million and applications will be accepted until 1 November 2021.

The EUR 10,000 grand prize for the Environmental Investment Centre (EIC) green idea competition Negavatt was awarded to Myceen, a developer of mushroom materials and related products. The EUR 5000 prize for the runner-up was taken home by RingKarp, a reusable food box service provider for catering establishments. Third place and EUR 3000 belongs to the circular economy agency Unknot, which helps clothing manufacturers to develop and sell recyclable products manufactured from their waste.

The jury of the green idea competition Negavatt organised by the Environmental Investment Centre (EIC) held virtual meetings with the top 20 teams and selected ten ideas that will continue to compete for the €10,000 grand prize. The best of the competition will be announced on 8 June. In total, Negavatt received a record 113 ideas this season!

The Environmental Investment Centre (EIC) opened an application round for the preparation of local government climate and energy plans, within the framework of which local governments have the opportunity to add the climate and energy sector to already existing development plans or prepare a separate plan for a specific region. The budget for the round is EUR 400,000 and the deadline for submitting applications is 26 April 2021.

This year, for the first time, the Environmental Investment Centre (EIC) will open application rounds for the European Economic Area (EEA) grants that will help mitigate and adapt to climate change. Donor countries Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway will direct EUR 6 million to Estonia for the implementation of environmental and climate projects.

To date, the Environmental Investment Centre (EIC) has made all decisions related to the second round of the grant for purchasing electric vehicles, the acceptance of applications for which ended in mid-December after only half an hour thanks to great interest. A total of 32 private individuals and 28 companies, who will be purchasing a total of 114 new electric vehicles, received a positive response. The total amount of grant is EUR 570,000.