GRUPPO IREN TELERISCALDAMENTO E AMBIENTE

Investment programme in district heating networks and waste management facilities

The main purpose of such investments in district heating would be to improve the operational flexibility of the system (peak demand coverage) and to reduce the absolute amount of local air pollutants (NOx, SO2) by replacing individual smaller, fossil-fuel-fired heating boilers in residential and public buildings. Investments in the waste sector would contribute to increasing materials recovery from residual municipal waste and thereby decrease environmental and climate change impact from current waste treatment and disposal operations.

By virtue of their technical characteristics, some of the indicatively assumed project components for financing might concern investments which could fall under Annex II of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive (2014/52/EU), which requires the competent national authority to determine the need for an EIA. A condition will be included in the finance contract requiring that the promoter completes any EIA or nature conservation area impact assessment and receives approval from the competent authorities prior to allocating the Bank’s funds to the project scheme, including providing copies of the relevant documents, including the consents, to the Bank. Residual environmental impact of the project schemes assumed to be supported by the Bank is expected to be minimal.

The promoter is well known to the Bank and thus its procurement procedures are expected to be in compliance with Directive 2014/25/EU on utilities sector procurement.