OREANDA-NEWS. April 01, 2015. From 1 July 2015, the KfW Group will be increasing its efforts to promote the energy-efficient rehabilitation and construction of non-residential buildings on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), using funds from the CO2 building rehabilitation programme.

“Our aim is to achieve almost climate-neutral building stock by the year 2050. To this end, we need to make further progress with respect to building efficiency – not just in residential buildings, but in commercial properties and municipal facilities too. That is why, with this new form of KfW promotion, we are helping companies and municipalities to invest in energy-saving construction and are filling a gap in this respect,” says Sigmar Gabriel, the German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy.

Companies and municipalities benefit from low interest rates as well as repayment bonuses of up to 17.5% if they modernise their buildings to the standard of a KfW Efficiency House, or if they implement individual rehabilitation measures with respect to a building’s shell or technical facilities. The main aim is to improve energy efficiency. KfW and BMWi are also working together to offer significant investment incentives for the construction of new buildings with low energy requirements. “Non-residential buildings offer significant potential with respect to efficiency that can generate real cost benefits for companies and municipalities, in addition to enabling considerable CO2 savings. Non-residential buildings account for more than 40% of the primary energy requirement of all buildings,” explains Dr Ingrid Hengster, Member of KfW Group’s Executive Board. “We are delighted that, in addition to our very successful promotion of residential buildings, we will also be able to offer the energy-efficient construction and rehabilitation of non-residential buildings for all companies in the future.” No matter what their size, industrial companies will be able to apply for promotional loans through their regular banks from 1 July 2015 as part of the “KfW Energy Efficiency Programme – Energy-Efficient Construction and Rehabilitation”.

From 1 October 2015, municipalities, social institutions and municipal companies will then also be able to have their energy-efficient new buildings promoted by KfW. The existing promotion for the energy-efficient rehabilitation of buildings that form part of the municipal and social infrastructure will improve noticeably from that point onwards, by means of the introduction of 5.0% repayment bonuses for individual energy-efficiency measures, for example.

Please note: The interest rates will be announced when the programme is launched. You will find out more information nearer the relevant programme launch date at www.kfw.de.