The Sustainable Energy Financing Facilities (SEFF) are part of the EBRD’s Sustainable Energy Initiative. The EBRD was the first international financial institution to establish a specialized energy efficiency team in 1994, and has accumulated valuable expertise in innovative energy efficiency financing. The EBRD recognised early that the high energy intensity of economic activity is a major challenge to transition in the countries of its operations.

Sustainable energy investments offer excellent opportunities for companies to increase their competitiveness by using energy resources more effectively – often in parallel with modernisation or production enhancement plans. The Sustainable Energy Financing Facility (or SEFF) is a special credit facility supporting smaller companies to realize their investment efforts in sustainable energy.The SEFF model has proved to be a highly effective approach for helping businesses to optimise energy solutions, reduce energy costs and enhance competitiveness. SEFFs are also helping the residential sector to reduce energy bills and improve comfort levels.

In addition to providing funding dedicated to financing such investments through local partner banks, each SEFF is supported by a technical cooperation programme, which is a key factor in identifying profitable investment opportunities and promoting best practice solutions.

The EBRD engages teams of international and local experts to help prospective borrowers identify the most viable technical and financial solutions for their investment needs. Participating banks and their clients benefit free-of-charge from this assistance, resulting in well-documented loan applications for investments with enhanced profitability (higher internal rates of return) and lower technical risk.

Since launching the first SEFF in Bulgaria, the EBRD has committed more than EUR 1.9 billion of commercial finance to SEFFs being implemented in 15 countries and supported by EUR 200 million from donors.