Private Investment for a solar and saving project in a high school in Emmerich

A solar-energy panel with a total output of 50 kilowatt was installed on the roof of the Willibrord High School in Emmerich. Other extensive measures for energy savings have been made at the school, in particular the reorganisation of both the ventilation system and the heating system.
According to the contract between "Solar&Spar GmbH and Co. KG Willibrord - Gymnasium Emmerich", the school has borne the expense of the investment but will ultimately benefit from saved energy costs. The solar electricity yielded from the solar energy system will through the feed-in payment arrangement contribute considerably to the overall profitability of the solar and saving project. In 2005 the first profit was yielded from the project.

Contracting – How the Capital was raised
Employees at the school and the parents of the pupils were invited to buy share certificates from 500 Euro upwards. Anybody else who was interested in investing could buy share certificates starting from 2.000 Euro upwards. Capital raised by private citizens, amounted to approximately 380.000 Euro. The interest rate from this investment was judged to be between five and six percent.
The solar and savings project at the Willibrord High School is a long-term business arrangement. The private partners are silent partners with the Energy Services Company responsible for the project. All private partners have limited liability so there is little risk associated with this sort of investment.

A comprehensive overview on existing examples to mobilise private capital of local stakeholders for the application of RUE and/or RES technologies in public buildings in the EU-25 is given in a interner Link folgt summary survey (PDF 421 kB). It turned out that such examples only exist in Austria and Germany. Additionally the document gives an overview on existing approaches in the participating municipalities with respect to financing and implementation of RUE and RES measures in public buildings against the background of the national framework conditions.