Rural microenterprise energy investment grant
A grant for full-time microenterprises in Finland’s core or sparsely populated rural areas to invest in renewable energy for their own use and improve energy or material efficiency.
Esta oportunidad está disponible actualmente en inglés.
You can install heat pumps or solar panels, replace oil heating with wood or another renewable heat source, or make smaller energy-saving improvements. General renovation and replacing machinery are excluded, but control systems and other small energy-saving improvements to existing machines may qualify.
The grant covers up to 30% of eligible investment costs of €5,000–€100,000. The investment must serve your business’s own energy needs. The project does not have to produce economic growth.
You must pay the approved costs first. The decision sets whether payment is based on incurred costs or completed project sections. For cost-based payment, provide the required receipts and accounting extract. For payment by completed sections, deliver the agreed work, achieve the section’s targets and submit its specified proof; receipts can be requested separately. Approved section contents, targets and verification methods cannot later be changed through an amendment application. Independent completed sections can be paid even if another is not completed; if sections form one whole, failure to complete that whole can lead to recovery of money already paid.
Eligibility
- Your business must be a full-time microenterprise in a core rural or sparsely populated rural area. Farms can qualify for their business activities outside agriculture. An EU microenterprise has fewer than 10 employees and annual turnover or a balance-sheet total of no more than €2 million; businesses in a larger group may need to include that group’s figures.
- Your business must be profitable, able to pay its bills and financially sound. The applicant and responsible persons must have sound finances, staff must have sufficient skills, and products or services must have demand and sufficient markets. The grant must make a significant difference to starting, growing or developing the business and must not distort competition; this energy grant does not require resulting economic growth.
- The applicant, a recipient of transferred aid, persons with ownership or decision-making power and connected registered businesses or organisations must not have shown clear disregard for grant conditions, substantially neglected legal obligations or had other substantial payment defaults in the application year or the preceding three calendar years. Artificially creating eligibility and an unpaid recovery order from an earlier European Commission decision also prevent an award.
- An undertaking in difficulty under EU state-aid rules is normally excluded, but that status does not bar an award made as de minimis aid. The test includes, for example, a limited liability company losing more than half of its subscribed share capital through accumulated losses, a partnership losing more than half of its own funds, insolvency proceedings or unpaid rescue aid/ongoing restructuring aid. For a company less than three years old, the published explanation applies the test only on the basis of insolvency proceedings. Its application depends on legal form and circumstances; your Leader group assesses the award under the applicable rules.
- Submit any required investment permit with your application. Keep the investment in use and do not sell it for at least three years after the final grant payment. The authority can set a longer period, up to ten years.
How to apply
- Estado
- Abierto continuamente
- Condiciones de la convocatoria
- Continuous applications are explicitly confirmed in Northern Finland; Leader selection criteria and decision cycles vary locally.[^c13][^c14][^c10]
Contact your local Leader group about its selection criteria and decision cycles, then apply electronically in Hyrrä. Sign and submit the application before purchasing anything, entering binding contracts or starting the investment. Once submitted and registered, you may proceed at your own risk; funding is secured only by a positive decision.
Northern Finland’s official intake page confirms continuous applications and lists this grant among open offers. Leader decision cycles vary locally. Complete the project by 30 April 2029. Read the decision and follow its communication requirements and deadlines.
Keep project costs separate in your accounts throughout implementation. Report additional financing in the payment claim as instructed in the payment guidance. Notify the regional economic development authority (elinvoimakeskus) immediately about significant changes to the project plan or your business, and no later than when claiming payment. Claim the final payment in Hyrrä within four months after the project implementation period ends and provide the monitoring information at the same time. Own-use renewable-energy projects report the energy type and annual production baseline and target in the application, then actual production at completion.