Conto Termico 3.0
Grants for renewable heating and eligible energy upgrades to existing buildings, for private applicants, public bodies and third-sector organisations in Italy.
Denne finansieringsmulighed er i øjeblikket beskrevet på engelsk.
Conto Termico pays a grant towards eligible work and equipment. The amount depends on the measure, its size and performance, eligible costs and the applicant. The general ceiling is 65% of eligible costs; this is a ceiling, rather than a flat reimbursement rate.
Renewable heating measures include replacing existing heating with air, ground or water-source heat pumps; hybrid or bivalent systems combining a heat pump with another generator; biomass heating, including for greenhouses, rural buildings, production processes and heat networks; solar thermal, including systems that supply cooling; replacement heat-pump water heaters; connections to efficient district heating; and renewable microcogeneration that produces heat and electricity. Heat-pump, hybrid, biomass and district-heating installations are limited to 2,000 kW; solar thermal is limited to 2,500 m². Business applicants cannot install fossil-fuel equipment under this programme.
Eligible building-efficiency work includes insulation, replacement windows, external solar shading facing east-south-east through west, conversion of a whole building to nearly zero-energy performance, replacement efficient lighting and automatic heating/electrical controls. Solar PV with storage and private vehicle charging qualify only alongside replacement of existing heating with an electric heat pump.
Businesses and organisations carrying out economic activities have separate aid limits. For building efficiency, the base limit is 25% for one measure or 30% for a combined project, increased by 20 percentage points for small businesses and 10 for medium businesses. Assisted areas and a primary-energy improvement of at least 40% can increase these limits; overall efficiency limits are 65% for small and medium businesses and 60% for large businesses. Renewable-heating limits are 65%, 55% and 45%, respectively. The technology calculation and cost caps still apply.
Up to 100% can apply to municipality-owned buildings in municipalities with no more than 15,000 residents, used by the municipality or by non-business third parties for public-social activities and collective services. Publicly owned school and national health-service buildings can also qualify when the work is carried out by a public administration or a non-economic third-sector organisation using the building, with evidence of its use and the programme's technical caps. Universities do not qualify under the school exception. In mixed-use school/health buildings, this exception covers only the school/health portion for windows, shading and lighting; it does not cover other measures.
Grants up to €15,000 are paid in one instalment. Larger grants normally run over two or five annual instalments according to the measure. Public bodies and third-sector organisations using direct access can receive a single instalment above €15,000; for economic third-sector organisations this exception is limited to renewable-heating measures. GSE deducts a service fee of 1%, capped at €250 before any applicable VAT.
Eligibility
You must own the property or have another legal right to use it. The building must already exist, be registered in the urban building cadastre and have functioning winter heating; buildings under construction are excluded.
For third-sector organisations, the economic or non-economic category follows the activity classification recorded in RUNTS. Declare that category in the application; GSE verifies it and may request supporting documents. Economic activity can bring an organisation within the business rules regardless of its legal form, funding or whether it pursues profit, so nonprofit status alone does not establish the non-economic category.
- Public administrations and non-economic third-sector organisations registered in the national third-sector register (RUNTS) can use both categories. The programme's public category also includes eligible social and housing cooperatives, former public-housing institutes, public economic bodies, port authorities, in-house companies carrying out work on property owned by their controlling public administration or administrations and public-service concessionaires using local-authority buildings.
- Private applicants, including individuals and businesses, can fund renewable-heating measures in eligible residential buildings. Both renewable-heating and building-efficiency measures are available in eligible service-sector buildings, including for economic third-sector organisations.
- For private applicants, residential cadastral group A excludes A/8, A/9 and A/10. Eligible service-sector categories are A/10, B, C excluding C/6 and C/7, D excluding D/9, and E excluding E/2, E/4 and E/6.
- Businesses and economic third-sector organisations must submit a preliminary request before starting work. Gas heat pumps and hybrids containing fossil-fuel equipment are excluded for them. Their efficiency projects must reduce primary-energy demand by at least 10% for a single measure or 20% for a combined project, including the intrinsically combined nearly zero-energy, PV/heat-pump and charging/heat-pump measures. Before-and-after energy performance certificates demonstrate the reduction for GSE.
Insulation and nearly zero-energy conversion require an energy diagnosis before work and an energy performance certificate afterwards. Whole-building window, shading and thermal measures also require these documents when the existing heating capacity is at least 200 kW. Process-heat and heat-network installations are exempt from this building-document requirement. Technical eligibility, performance and documentation rules differ by measure.
The grant generally cannot be combined with another central-government incentive for the same costs, except guarantee funds, revolving funds and interest subsidies. Publicly owned buildings used by the public administration can combine capital grants up to 100% of eligible costs. Business aid and energy-community incentives have their own permitted cumulation limits. Declare other public support in the application.
Businesses must declare registration in the business register, must not qualify as an undertaking in difficulty under the EU state-aid definition, and must not have an outstanding European Commission recovery order for unlawful or incompatible aid. The application declarations allow GSE to assess these conditions. The programme also applies procurement-exclusion and antimafia checks.
How to apply
- Status
- Løbende ansøgning
- Vilkår for ansøgningsrunden
- Direct access only; apply within 90 days of completion. Reservations were not included in the official portal reopening.[^c41][^c42]
Register in GSE's Area Clienti and select Conto Termico 3.0. The person or organisation paying for the work is the responsible applicant, signs the GSE contract and receives the grant; a delegate can prepare the application.
Businesses and economic third-sector organisations must submit the preliminary request through Portaltermico before construction starts or the first binding equipment order or other irreversible commitment, whichever happens first. Planning, feasibility work and permit requests do not themselves start this clock.
For direct access, submit the technical details and required documents through Portaltermico within 90 days of completion. Confirm the data, sign the generated application and contract, and upload them with identification. GSE checks the application and grants support subject to eligibility and available funding. The official reopening notice admits direct applications for private applicants, businesses, third-sector organisations and public administrations; it does not reopen reservations.
Completion means finishing the work and associated eligible activities. For combined projects it is the last measure completed; where combined PV is installed but awaiting grid connection, the electric heat-pump completion date applies. Public procurement uses the acceptance/regular-execution certificate or the final progress statement covering the measure. Completion must be no more than 120 days after the last payment. Private applicants can use a longer payment period if the final payment exceeds 10% of total intervention expenditure, with supporting evidence. Professional services and components unnecessary for first operation do not determine completion.
The programme rules also provide a reservation route for public bodies and third-sector organisations, with diagnosis plus a decision to carry out work, a qualifying energy-performance/supply contract, or evidence of awarded and handed-over work. Economic third-sector organisations may reserve only renewable-heating measures. This route includes advance and possible intermediate payments followed by a direct application for the balance. It remains subject to the current restriction to direct submissions.
You can apply yourself or through an eligible energy-service company, energy community or self-consumption group. For private residential projects, an energy-service company can act as responsible applicant only for heating installations above 70 kW or solar thermal above 20 m²; assigning collection of the grant is a separate option. Public administrations can also use an authorised public property manager or a qualifying public-private partnership.
Public administrations and non-economic third-sector organisations also have a diagnosis-advance branch in the rules: request 50% of the maximum diagnosis contribution through Portaltermico, submit the completed diagnosis and expenditure, then apply for at least one identified intervention to receive the balance. It is subject to the branch's request limits and dedicated funding.