Slovakia offers rebates for eco-friendly home energy systems

Home owners who install solar panels, wind turbines, ground-source heat pumps and similar eco-friendly installations now qualify for government rebates. As of Tuesday, December 1, households in Slovakia are able to gain financial assistance with the installation of more ecological heating and energy sources. Financed from the European and state resources, owners of households could thus cover 30-50 percent of their costs, Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Tuesday. The project 'Green for Households' represents a national pilot project by the Slovak Innovation and Energy Agency, aimed at helping people in Slovakia replace their old and often inefficient devices running on fossil fuels, for more modern and higher quality devices on the basis of renewable sources that don't pollute the environment. The project is currently budgeted at €45 million and the launch of its website has been pointing to enormous interest, said Fico. "Almost 50,000 people have registered on the website and requested more information and contacts. Therefore, it's likely that the contribution at hand won't be enough. We've decided to bolster the budget up to €110-115 million, which should be sufficient", said Fico. More information for eligible applicants can be found at www.zelenadomacnostiam.sk. It is expected that Slovakia could see the installation of more than 14,000 renewable energy source systems by 2018.