Ms Cooke said the Heritage Green Energy Grants program by the Office of Environment and Heritage recognises that energy efficiency can be more difficult to achieve for heritage items than for newer sites or buildings.

“These Heritage Green Energy Grants will offer up to $100,000 per application to help owners or managers of heritage buildings that are listed as a heritage item at a Council or State level to bring these places up to speed when it comes to energy efficiency,” Ms Cooke said.

“Building age, materials, type of construction, size, shape and site orientation all play a role in how heritage buildings perform in terms of energy efficiency, so this program will encourage building managers to think about how their building can be improved.

“The grants are open to successful participants of an OEH energy efficiency training course, so I encourage all heritage owners and managers who have completed this training to consider what improvements they could be making at their site,” she said.

The Heritage Green Energy Grants are available to owners or managers of heritage buildings that are listed as a heritage item on a council's Local Environmental Plan (LEP) or on the State Heritage Register (SHR).

You can check if a site is listed as a heritage item by visiting the NSW Planning Portal, or by contacting your local council.

The Heritage Green Energy grant program is one of the three grant streams under the Heritage Near Me program, which successfully completed a pilot round of the Heritage Green Energy Grants and awarded a total of $464,215 to six applicants in 2017.

Applications opened on Friday, June 8 and close on September 30, 2018.

More information and guidelines for applicants are available on the OEH website at www.environment.nsw.gov.au/heritage-near-me-incentives.