Renewable energy for production processes

• Businesses and other organizations carrying out economic activities, associations and religious institutions can apply. Foreign companies are eligible, but the investment must be at an operating site in Austria. Private individuals and private-use project shares are excluded; agricultural projects qualify only when they are not eligible under agricultural funding.
• Eligible investment costs must exceed €30,000 and annual CO₂ savings must exceed four tonnes. The project must need an incentive to proceed: its payback period without the grant must be at least three years, calculated using eligible costs, energy prices and associated savings or extra costs.
• The existing production equipment must still be operational. New installations, replacement of inoperable equipment and capacity increases are not funded. Where a conversion also raises output, only the cost share corresponding to existing capacity can count. Vehicles, building space-heating distribution, employee work performed by the applicant, modernization of fossil-fuel energy equipment, stand-alone renewable electricity generation, hydrogen electrolyzers and Power-to-Heat plants are excluded.
• Funded equipment must run permanently on renewable energy. Existing fossil equipment can serve only as failure backup, supplying at most 5% of annual energy demand. Biogas and green hydrogen count only when you provide the renewable energy yourself; purchased certificates are insufficient.
• Switching a production process to electricity requires evidence of renewable supply: a contract with a supplier listed as a green-electricity provider in the current E-Control report, a supplier-signed confirmation, or documentation of your own generation covering annual process demand. For conversion of fossil process-heat or steam generators, you must also explain why another renewable source is technically or operationally impossible and build renewable generation simultaneously to cover annual demand. That generation plant is not funded by this offer.
• If standard biomass heating, district-heat connection or heat-pump funding covers your heat supply, use that offer and its application instead. Simultaneous support through the Renewable Energy Expansion Act (EAG) and this environmental grant is prohibited.
• Existing industrial or commercial installations covered by the EU emissions trading system can qualify if environment-related investment costs are no more than €2 million. Emissions-trading installations generating electricity or heat for third parties in the energy sector are excluded.
• Leasing, hire-purchase and contracting are possible only for nationally funded projects, not EU-cofinanced projects. Contracting finances the project through an agreement between a contractor and the customer using the plant; the agreement determines who owns it. If the customer owns the plant and records it as an asset on its balance sheet, only the customer can apply. The plant must transfer to the customer by the final instalment, and payout cannot exceed eligible instalments and deposits actually paid by final accounting, excluding interest and fees. If the contractor owns and records the plant as an asset, only the contractor can apply. In that route, both contractor and customer must qualify, the contractor must ensure the promised environmental effect throughout the grant contract, and the grant must visibly benefit the customer. For leasing or hire-purchase, the plant must pass into the grant recipient’s ownership by the final instalment; payout is limited to eligible instalments and deposits actually paid by final accounting, excluding interest and fees.
• Operate the funded plant for at least ten years, retain project records for the contractual period and allow checks of the environmental result. Combustion equipment must comply with the authority’s emission limits, with a qualified measurement report submitted at final accounting.
• The investment must be voluntary rather than required by law or an authority.
• Costs incurred before KPC receives the application or after the completion deadline are excluded, except planning and preparatory work. Individual invoices below €500, taxes, fees and financing costs are also excluded.

Status

Dates not announced

Apply exclusively online to Kommunalkredit Public Consulting (KPC). Submit a complete application before the earliest binding equipment order, delivery, construction start or other irreversible commitment. For leasing, hire-purchase or contracting, this also means applying before signing the financing agreement.

Provide a technical project description and process diagram, an energy balance before and after conversion, detailed cost estimates or quotations, and renewable-electricity evidence where relevant. Investments over €500,000 also require a bank report. Once KPC confirms receipt, you may start at your own risk. KPC assesses the application; after approval, return the signed acceptance declaration to make the grant contract effective.

Complete the project within 18 months of the grant contract being issued; exceptions require a technical justification. The programme page instructs you to submit final accounts within six months after the completion date set in your contract. General contractual conditions additionally require accounting within one year after actual completion. Submit project or cost changes to KPC using the Nachantrag amendment form as soon as they become known, and always before the application is approved. For changed supplies and services, submit the amendment before any binding order or other irreversible commitment, just as for the original application. During implementation, also report significant changes to KPC and obtain its agreement. At final accounting, provide at least one comparison quotation for every major component or cost item. Where required for a supplier that is a partner or linked company, provide three comparison quotations from independent suppliers, making four price statements in total. Submit any applicable procurement evidence.