First year of success for Salix Finance

Online, March 16, 2010 (Newswire.com) - The Salix Energy Efficiency Loans (SEELS) fund awards interest-free loans to help public sector organisations invest in energy efficiency projects.

In less than a year after its launch, Salix Finance allocated £57m government energy efficiency loan fund. Salix Finance energy efficiency loans will save an estimated 95,000 tonnes of CO2 annually and some 1.45 million tonnes over the lifetime of the projects.

Salix Finance said that 1,439 energy efficiency projects across 223 organisations had been awarded loans to support projects such as energy efficient lighting upgrades, insulation rollouts and the installation of combined heat and power systems.

Richard Morley, Director at Envido said: "The enthusiastic response of organisations across the public sector shows clearly that there is a great need for Salix Finance schemes, which get both energy costs and carbon emissions down quickly".

With next month's budget, it is hoped further funding will be earmarked for the Salix Finance energy efficiency loan scheme. Loan repayments on the £57m awards were being returned to the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

Despite the Salix Finance having been allocated, Salix said that public sector bodies keen to roll out energy efficiency projects could still apply for interest-free loans from a separate £95m fund that the company operates by continuously recycling repayments from previous loans.