"Support of the state for increasing the energy efficiency of kindergarten buildings is very important for municipalities, as the money saved on heating costs can be used for other necessary investments and activities to improve the well-being of residents," Minister of Public Administration Jaak Aab said in a Ministry of Finance press release.

"That kindergartens are in a good state of repair, energy effective and safe is important to every municipality and and of course to families as well," he added.

Implementation of the projects will begin this July and work is expected to be completed by the end of 2019 at the latest, the Environmental Investment Center said.

The projects of the first round will allow municipalities to save 1,874 tons of carbon dioxide, which translates into 202 megawatt-hours of energy saved per building per year.

Altogether 54 applications were filed in the call for proposals that ended in April, two of which were later withdrawn. An evaluation was conducted of 52 applications worth €14.7 million in total.

The Environmental Investment Centre (EIC) finances various environmental projects using funds form Estonian environmental charges, income from the sale of carbon dioxide quotas, and from the Structural Funds of the European Union.

In addition, the EIC accepts applications for borrowing for specific environmental projects. Over a period of 17 years, the Estonian government has disbursed over €1.2 billion to more than 20,000 environmental projects via the EIC.