North West Croatia Regional Energy and Climate Agency (REGEA)

Our journey began on April 1, 2008. REGEA was founded by the City of Zagreb, Krapina-Zagorje County, Karlovac County and Zagreb County through the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme and has shown that different political options can work together and listen to the profession. In 2011, we joined the European Association of Regions and Energy Agencies FEDARENE, which gathers more than 90 members - European regions, islands and leading energy agencies. In the last 15 years, REGEA has encouraged, led or implemented investments of over 500 million euros. We have implemented 84 EU projects, and there is no available source of European funding to which we have not successfully applied at least once. Also, we were the first in Croatia to launch a program with the intention of encouraging citizens to use renewable energy sources, covering as many as 10,000 households. Moreover, REGEA managed the project of the first and still the only municipal biomass heating plant in Croatia in Pokupsko. Our company implemented the first Croatian projects of solar power plants according to the electricity sales model (PPA) on the roofs of hospitals in Zabok, Krapinske Toplice and Karlovac. We are also pioneers in financing projects for the energy renovation of schools through savings that we have been implementing since 2011. So far, we are the first company in the EU which has successfully applied twice for the EIB's ELENA program. Furthermore, we started the first ELENA project, NEWLIGHT, in 2015. The result is investments in public lighting in 24 cities and municipalities worth HRK 100 million. Additionally, in 2021, the company started another ELENA project – PVMax. The goal is to prepare and launch investments in at least 100 MW of photovoltaic power plants throughout Croatia. We led the renovation and opened the Bračak Energy Center in 2017, the first NZEB historical building in Croatia. In 2020, we became the national coordinator of Climate KIC HUB Croatia.