Deep geothermal project development grant
Grants for municipalities, businesses and other applicants preparing deep geothermal heat, cooling or electricity projects in Austria.
Tato příležitost je nyní dostupná v angličtině.
The 2024 Tiefengeothermie call is closed. It supported work to assess and reduce the risks of developing geothermal energy, rather than the use of thermal water itself.
The four technical modules could be requested separately. Completing an earlier funded module was not compulsory, but feasibility studies needed the information required for preliminary studies, exploration needed the information from modules 1 and 2, and pilot wells needed the information from modules 1–3.
- Preliminary studies: up to EUR 20,000 and 50% of eligible net costs for applicants undertaking economic activity, or 70% for non-economic projects. Economic activity means offering products or services on a market; a municipality or interest-representative body could receive the higher rate where its funded project did not compete on a market.
- Feasibility studies: up to 50% of net costs, capped at EUR 100,000.
- Exploration, including wells intended to investigate resources rather than subsequent commercial use: up to 30% of net costs, capped at EUR 1 million.
- Pilot wells suitable for commercial geothermal production or injection: up to 30% of net costs, capped at EUR 3 million. The grant need not be repaid merely because commercial use of the geothermal project is not implemented for a justified reason.
Your own staff work was excluded. The call calculated support on net costs; recoverable VAT was never eligible. The underlying rules allowed consideration of VAT demonstrably and finally borne without an input-tax deduction right. Grants were paid after final accounts with invoices, proof of payment and a detailed final report, subject to the available programme budget.
Community engagement and public information were routed to the separate Expert:innen-Pool programme, with its own requirements and deadlines.
Eligibility
Natural and legal persons could apply, with cities, municipalities and businesses particularly targeted. Facilities covered by the EU Emissions Trading System were permitted under the call's stated exception.
- Projects needed a depth of at least 300 metres and planned usable thermal output of at least 1 MW. Open systems had to reinject the warm water into the ground.
- Applicants could submit at most five applications each for module 1 and five for module 2. Modules 2–4 required evidence of intent to implement a concrete geothermal project for commercial use.
- Projects already supported with federal funds, or with an application already made for implementation funding, were excluded. Costs funded here could not be claimed again in a subsequent UFI project grant. Other intended, pending or completed public-funding applications had to be disclosed, with a legally binding declaration that the information was correct and complete.
- Where exempted or approved State aid was awarded, applicants classified as an “undertaking in difficulty” under the referenced EU rules, or failing to comply with an EU Commission recovery order for unlawful and incompatible aid, were excluded.
How to apply
- Stav
- nedostupné
- Otevírá se
- Uzavírá se
- Podmínky daného kola žádostí
- The 2024 call is closed; these terms describe that historical intake.[^c1][^c22]
The 2024 intake has ended. The historical application route was online through Kommunalkredit Public Consulting (KPC). A complete application had to arrive before the first binding order for services or another commitment making the investment irreversible, whichever occurred first. Starting after KPC confirmed receipt was at your own risk; a binding award arose only through the accepted grant contract.
Applications needed the project description, costs and development roadmap; cooperation required letters of intent, and project costs of EUR 100,000 or more required a bank report. Modules 2–4 also needed evidence of implementation intent, modules 3–4 a comprehensive feasibility study, and module 4 the permits required to construct and operate the installation.
Complete preliminary studies within nine months, feasibility studies within twelve months, and exploration or pilot drilling within eighteen months of grant approval. A justified extension required a timely written request. Significant changes needed KPC's consent, and events materially delaying or preventing completion had to be reported immediately.
After completing and paying for the work, submit final accounts to KPC for payment. For pilot wells, the underlying investment rules required final accounts within one year of completion. Submit a publishable final report, including results and measured data, with the accounts. Interpreted reservoir and fluid data had to be supplied in machine-readable form for future public publication; justified exceptions were possible.
Keep supporting records available for checks: the call required ten-year retention of receipts, the underlying audit duties lasted at least ten years from grant award, and loss of records through the recipient’s fault preventing verification within ten years of project completion could trigger repayment. For services, the last requirement could be excepted only where not administratively necessary for the offer, permissible under State-aid rules and specifically authorized.
Pilot-well awards also carried repayment risks if required permits were missing, operating rights ended, the projected environmental result was not achieved for up to ten years after payment (except for investments classed as eco-innovative), or ownership, control or the right to use the funded facility changed before completion or within ten years afterwards. Eco-innovation means new production processes, products, services, management or business methods that achieve or aim at significant environmental improvement and are suitable for avoiding or substantially reducing environmental risks, harm or adverse effects on resource use during their application. Simple replacements, expansions or minor changes do not qualify. These obligations accompany the pilot-well exception for justified non-implementation of commercial use.