With project Energy Retrofit of Public Buildings in the City of Ljubljana (EOL 1-4) under the Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) PPP approach the Municipality of Ljubljana pursues the goals of reducing energy consumption and increasing the share of renewable energy sources. Through the project more than 100 builings shall be energy reftroffited and rehabilitated.
Within EOL 1 to 4, approximately EUR 60 million will be invested in the energy renovation of already completed buildings. The majority of these funds are private partner funds, with some coming from EU cohesion funds and a small portion coming from MOL funds.
At the project level, we will save more than 400,000 MWh of energy, which equates to more than 80,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent, or the value cleared by approximately 3.2 million average-sized trees, or approximately 8,000 hectares of forest.
The majority of the savings generated go to the private partner to reimburse the investment, and throughout the duration of the public-private partnership, MOL participates in the savings and has lower energy consumption costs than it did prior to the project's implementation.
Kindergartens, primary schools, sports facilities, city administration facilities, cultural facilities, and parking garages are all included in the energy renovation. As part of the partial renovations, we will replace inefficient lighting with more cost-effective LED technology, renovate the heating source with hydraulic balancing, replace inefficient ventilation systems with new ones, and, to the greatest extent possible, increase the share of renewable energy sources. We also carry out construction measures, such as roof insulation, façade insulation, and joinery replacement, as part of comprehensive energy renovations.

Since the project identification phase the key idea of the project was Circular Economy aspects, mainly through approaches R-Reduce and R-Repair/Rehabilitate (6 Rs of Circular Economy). Namely, the project takes a circular approach by Reducing the amount of energy used to run public buildings while also raising the quality standard by Rehabilitating them. Previously unsafe buildings against earthquake, fire and energy as well as inefficient are after implementing the project safe and energy efficient. The key idea of the projects is: The greenest and most sustainable energy is the energy we don't use. This is one of Ljubljana's biggest green and circular projects.
The financial concept of the project is based on the Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) approach. EPC is a form of creative financing for capital improvement which allows funding energy upgrades from cost reductions. Under an EPC arrangement, an external organisation (Energy Service Company - ESCO) implements a project to deliver energy efficiency, or a renewable energy project, and uses the stream of income from the cost savings or the renewable energy produced to repay the costs of the project (including the costs of the investment). Essentially, the ESCO will not receive its payment unless the project delivers energy savings as expected. The CE aspect "Reduce" is therefore key to the model.