Apply for a loan with a repayment subsidy for renewable energies

The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) promotes measures to increase energy efficiency.
You can receive funding for the following measures:

• large solar collector systems with a gross collector area of more than 40 square metres,
• large solid biomass combustion plants,
• heating networks fed by renewable energies,
• biogas pipelines for non-processed biogas,
• large heat storage tanks,
• large efficient heat pumps,
• combined heat and power (CHP) plants.

No subsidies are available

• for self-built plants and used plants,
• for prototypes (plants of which there are less than 4 units),
• if you are a manufacturer of eligible plants or their main components,
• for trust constructions,
• for so-called in-lieu transactions, such as purchases from a spouse's property,
• for debt rescheduling and follow-up financing of measures that have already been started,
• if you have already started with the measure before submitting the application.

If you want to use heat from renewable energy sources, you can get a loan of up to EUR 25 million.
The amount of the subsidy for the repayment of the loan depends on the type, use and output of your system:

• Solar collector systems:
  • You get up to 30 percent of the eligible costs as a subsidy if you use your solar collector system for hot water production, space heating, solar cooling and feeding into a heating network.
  • You receive up to 40 percent of the eligible costs as a subsidy if you feed the majority of the heat produced into a heating network with at least four consumers.
  • In the case of a yield-based subsidy for your solar collector system, your subsidy is calculated as follows: annual heat yield * number of solar thermal modules * EUR 0.45.
    
    
• Biomass plants for the combustion of solid biomass for thermal use:
  • You receive a basic subsidy of up to EUR 20 per kilowatt (kW) of installed nominal heat output. You can receive a maximum subsidy of EUR 50,000.
  • You can also receive a bonus of up to EUR 20 per kW of installed nominal heat output if your system has low dust emissions or if a buffer storage tank is installed.
  • With the basic subsidy and bonus payments together, you can receive a maximum subsidy of EUR 100,000.
    
    
• Combined heat and power biomass plants:
  • You will receive a grant of EUR 40 per kW of installed nominal heat output.
    
    
• Heat grids fed predominantly from renewable energies:
  • You will receive EUR 60 for each newly built metre of the heating network, up to a maximum of EUR 1 million in subsidies.
  • If you feed in heat from deep geothermal plants, you can receive a grant of up to EUR 1.5 million.
    
    
• large heat storage tanks:
  • You receive EUR 250 for each cubic meter of storage volume. The subsidy is limited to 30 percent of the investment costs. You can receive a maximum grant of EUR 1 million.
    
    
• Biogas pipelines for unprocessed biogas:
  • You receive up to 30 percent of the eligible costs as a grant.
    
    
• large efficient heat pumps:
  • For heat pumps, you will receive EUR 80 per kilowatt of heat output as a subsidy.
  • For a geothermal probe, you will receive EUR 4.00 for each metre up to a depth of 400 metres and EUR 6.00 for depths of 400 metres and more as a subsidy.

If the heat and/or energy produced by your system is used for the operation of a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME), then your subsidy increases by a total of 10 percent.

• Small and medium-sized enterprises have
  • less than 250 employees
    and
    
  • an annual turnover not exceeding EUR 50 million.

Eligible costs are:

• only investments in the system itself (primary heating circuit),
• technical and commercial planning costs.

Not eligible are:

• Piping, distribution or control in the secondary heating circuit,
• radiators, air heaters and other space heaters.

You will only receive the repayment grant once you have completed your measure. To do this, you must prove
that you have spent the money from the loan on the measure,
that the measure technically fulfils its purpose.

You must keep all invoices and receipts related to the eligible costs.

Applications for funding are processed by the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW).

You have no claim to the approval of the subsidy.