Modernisation Fund solar grants for water and waste operators
Grants for authorized water-service and municipal-waste operators in Croatia to install solar panels for their own electricity use, with batteries available only to water operators.
Tämän rahoitusmahdollisuuden kuvaus on toistaiseksi englanniksi.
Modernisation Fund call MF-2025-1-1 supports grid-connected solar installations on buildings or land used by public utility operators. Water-service operators can include a battery behind the electricity meter, but only alongside the new solar installation. At least 75% of the battery’s annual energy must come from the directly connected renewable generator. Each solar module must have efficiency of at least 20%.
For solar generation, the maximum grant covers 65% of eligible costs for micro and small enterprises, 55% for medium enterprises and 45% for large enterprises. For a water operator’s battery, the corresponding limits are 50%, 40% and 30%. A project can receive €10,000–€3 million, and one applicant can receive up to €5.5 million across separate projects. You must finance the remaining eligible costs and all ineligible costs.
Eligible solar construction and equipment costs are capped at €1,100 per kWp for installations below 1 MWp and €890 per kWp for installations above 1 MWp. kWp and MWp describe the panels’ peak rated power. Installed capacity covered by the call may be up to 50% higher than the grid connection’s permitted import capacity. Grid connection equipment and connection costs can be included.
For waste operators only, mandatory design documentation can be funded up to 5% of eligible construction and equipment costs, provided the documentation costs arose after 27 December 2023. Design and construction supervision and construction-phase safety coordination can be funded up to 1% of eligible construction and equipment costs. External project management and publicity together have a further 1% limit on that same basis.
The grant excludes VAT, used equipment, roof repairs, vehicle chargers, land and property purchases, asset leasing, maintenance and operating costs, and the applicant’s own staff costs. It also excludes interest, banking and finance charges, accounting and audit services, guarantee costs, fines and costs connected with insolvency or liquidation. Water operators cannot claim design-documentation costs, and waste operators cannot claim batteries.
Eligibility
- Apply individually as an authorized public water-service provider or municipal-waste collection operator in Croatia. Water providers must meet the statutory business, ownership, technical-equipment and staffing requirements and hold the competent ministry’s approval. Waste operators can be companies majority-owned by one or more municipalities and entrusted with the service, or a legal person or sole trader holding the municipality’s concession. Partnerships are excluded.
- You must have been registered for the eligible activity for at least one year before submission and have at least one full-time employee, measured by working hours, for the preceding year. Business accounts must not be blocked. For corporate-income-tax accounting, EBITDA—operating income minus operating expenses plus depreciation—must not be negative in 2024; submissions after 30 April 2026 use 2025. For personal-income-tax accounting, there must be no loss in 2024; submissions after 28 February 2026 use 2025.
- The programme excludes bankruptcy, pre-bankruptcy settlement and liquidation, unpaid employee obligations, relevant final criminal convictions, and outstanding state-aid recovery orders or recovery proceedings. Taxes and social-insurance liabilities must be settled; overdue tax debt of no more than €1.50 is disregarded. Previous Fund contracts must have been fulfilled fully and on time.
- The programme also excludes an “undertaking in difficulty”. Its tests cover losing more than half the relevant capital through accumulated losses (with an exception for SMEs under three years old), insolvency criteria, unrepaid rescue aid or an ongoing restructuring plan. For a large enterprise, both financial tests must apply over the preceding two years: book debt divided by book equity exceeds 7.5 (the debt-to-equity ratio), and EBITDA is lower than the interest costs it must cover (EBITDA interest coverage below 1.0). The programme retains an exception for firms that were not in difficulty on 31 December 2019 but became so between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2021.
- The investment must be in Croatia, generate renewable electricity and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Own the site or demonstrate a legal right to use it for at least five years after expected completion. At payment, you must have Croatian headquarters or a registered Croatian branch or business unit.
- Size production for your own use. The reference is the site’s electricity consumption in 2024. Where solar generation already exists, include it in the calculation: total site consumption must be greater than the combined production from the existing and proposed solar installations.
- A site may combine connected buildings, parcels or meters, subject to the call’s location rules. All included meters must belong to the same eligible applicant, and permitted export power must not exceed permitted import power. A meter without permission to export electricity must be submitted as a separate site and application.
- Submit before starting construction or making the first binding equipment order or other irreversible investment commitment. Buying land, obtaining permits and feasibility studies do not count as starting works. Preparing application documentation is also permitted before submission.
- The call excludes applicants that have already received state aid for the same eligible project cost. You must not receive a guaranteed purchase tariff for the supported renewable-generation measures, or apply for one from submission until three years after project completion.
How to apply
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- Closed round; applications ended by 30 September 2026 at noon Croatian local time or earlier if funds were exhausted.[^c17][^c18]
This round is closed. The Fund’s official call listing and revised call remain available to read the terms of MF-2025-1-1.
For this round, the authorized representative submitted the prescribed forms and mandatory documentation in Croatian using Latin script. Digital files had to be placed on a USB drive, CD or DVD and sent in a sealed envelope by registered post with acknowledgement of receipt to Fond za zaštitu okoliša i energetsku učinkovitost, Radnička cesta 80, 10000 Zagreb. The envelope needed the applicant’s name and address, postal acceptance date and time, and call reference MF-2025-1-1. Multiple applications were allowed only for separate sites with separate costs and documentation.
After receiving the award decision, the recipient has 30 days to prove the financing is secured and confirm that no disqualifying circumstances have changed. If using bank credit, provide a loan contract covering the project’s total value less the award. If using own funds, show at least 30% of the total project value in the account; the statement must be no older than 30 days from the award decision. The Ministry and Fund then sign the grant agreement with the recipient.
Complete the project within 36 months after signing the agreement, and do not finish it before signing. All eligible costs must arise and be paid, and the complete final payment request must reach the Fund, within the cost-eligibility period ending no later than six months after project completion. Failure to obtain any grant payment within 12 months of signing can cause loss of the award.
Provide a notarized Croatian debt instrument (zadužnica or bjanko zadužnica) securing at least the grant amount, or the first permitted amount above it, by the first payment request. This secures your contractual obligations to the Fund. If the agreement is terminated, you must repay the money received with statutory late-payment interest; the Fund can use the instrument to collect an unpaid amount. A one-off advance of up to 20% of the award is available against a bank guarantee for the advance amount valid until 240 days after project completion. Publicly owned companies are exempt from that bank guarantee, but must supply the debt instrument before payment.
If subject to procurement rules, follow the public-procurement law or internal simplified-procurement rules, and provide procurement and expenditure evidence to the Fund. Submit progress reports every six months, annual reports by the end of February for the preceding year, and a final report with the final payment request. Keep project and payment records for at least five years after the final payment. Funded assets must remain in their supported use and cannot be transferred to another person or site for five years after completion.