Financial schemes to support companies to become more energy efficient were announced on Tuesday by Sustainable Development Minister Miriam Dalli.

The first scheme will grant companies up to €5,000 to undergo energy auditing, enabling them to understand how best to invest in order to save energy.

This grant would involve an engineer doing a detailed analysis of the energy consumption of companies and writing a sustainability report.

The scheme will be administered by the energy and water agency.

The second scheme allocates €15 million to companies which are investing in machinery and operations that consume less energy than more traditional machinery.

Companies will receive funding for up to 50% of these investments, but would only be eligible for the scheme once they had undergone an energy audit.

The scheme will be offered by Malta Enterprise and entitled ‘investment aid for energy efficiency projects.’

Dalli pointed out the importance of various entities working together to achieve sustainability goals.

“The pandemic was a challenging time but in this challenge, there were opportunities we can take advantage of if we all pull one rope,” Dalli said.

“Today through these schemes we will support companies to invest in becoming more energy-efficient and sustainable,” she continued.