Sustainable Housing

Amsterdam and BNG Bank sound gong for sustainable housing

By sounding the gong, mr. Abdeluheb Choho, Alderman of the City of Amsterdam, calls attention to the installation of the first solar panels on individual subsidized rented homes of Eigen Haard, a large housing association based in Amsterdam.

Thanks to the services of an Energy Service Company (ESCo), the housing association will not have to worry about the realization, financing, monitoring or maintenance of the solar panels for 20 years. Tenants will have lower energy bills, thereby also reaping the benefits. Over the coming year, more than 7,500 solar panels will be installed, making this project the largest of its kind in the Netherlands. The project was developed by HuurDeZon and is financed by the Amsterdam Climate & Energy Fund, Amsterdams Investeringsfonds (Amsterdam investment fund) and BNG Bank.

Alderman Abdeluheb Choho hopes that the roll-out will continue: "The City's goal is for 20 percent more energy per inhabitant to be produced sustainably by 2020 than in 2013, in part by promoting the use of solar panels. In principle, any housing association could apply this concept. Some 45 percent of Amsterdam's housing supply is held by the associations, so the potential yield is tremendous."

BNG Bank is the bank of and for local authorities and public sector institutions. The bank makes a sustainable contribution to minimizing the costs of social provisions for the public.

For more information: www.bngbank.nl

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