EXEED Grant for Energy Equipment and Building Upgrades
Grants for substantial energy-saving equipment, building upgrades and industrial process improvements in Ireland, with project assessment and support for installation and additional professional services.
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SEAI’s EXEED Stage 2 grant helps non-domestic organisations install energy-saving and renewable-energy systems. Supported projects include building renovation, efficient new buildings, industrial process improvements, heat pumps and solar panels. This is the implementation stage: the earlier EXEED design and feasibility grant is a separate application, and receiving it is not a prerequisite for Stage 2.
EXEED means Excellence in Energy Efficient Design. It examines a building or process’s energy needs before choosing equipment. Projects can follow this process and pursue EXEED certification. Projects that do not follow the EXEED design process are called Impactful Projects and use the alternative “Quality & Delivery” assessment of their team, resources, risks and delivery capability.
The main base rates apply to each measure’s eligible costs:
- Building energy-efficiency work: up to 30%, or 25% for a single measure.
- Industrial process and manufacturing energy-efficiency improvements: up to 30%.
- Solar photovoltaic panels, which generate electricity: up to 20%.
- Heat pumps and associated equipment: up to 40%. The rate depends on the design’s heat output relative to electricity input and its operating temperature, using SEAI’s performance table. Related efficiency measures receive up to 30% if they reduce heat demand after the heat pump or are needed to integrate it efficiently.
SEAI may add 10 percentage points for medium-sized enterprises or 20 for small enterprises only where the project’s payback without the grant exceeds ten years. Business-size evidence must account for partner and linked companies, including group ownership. A small enterprise has fewer than 50 employees and turnover or balance-sheet total no greater than €10 million. The wider category of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has fewer than 250 employees and turnover no greater than €50 million or balance-sheet total no greater than €43 million.
For existing-building renovation, the rate table does not deduct an alternative-investment cost. For new buildings and process investments, SEAI normally deducts the cost of a credible alternative that would happen without the grant. This is called the counterfactual. It may be a less efficient investment, the present-day value of maintaining existing equipment, or the present-day value of making a required investment later. The grant percentage then applies to the eligible difference. Where no less efficient alternative exists, total investment costs can qualify; SEAI may instead award 15% where a required counterfactual is not supplied.
Additional implementation fees can qualify, including specialist design, commissioning, verification of savings and project coordination. Additional specialist commissioning and performance services can include checks of the energy project’s quality. These services must relate to implementing its energy-saving opportunities. Preliminaries, general site preparation, and fire and safety work are excluded from this category. Grant application and claim administration, internal staff time, travel, routine repairs, maintenance and unrelated costs do not. Procurement must demonstrate competitive, reasonable pricing. VAT is eligible only when it cannot be reclaimed, supported by a Revenue letter dated in the year of application.
The normal €3 million project ceiling combines Stage 1 and Stage 2 support. Higher combined support requires prior approval from the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment. SEAI may offer less than the maximum rates following its assessment of the grant’s effect and value for money. Other public funding reduces the EXEED support available so total aid remains within the applicable limit; the same opportunities cannot receive duplicate support from EXEED or another SEAI programme.
Eligibility
Businesses, public bodies, nonprofits and other non-domestic organisations can apply for an asset operating and located in the Republic of Ireland. The building, facility, system or process must use at least 100,000 kWh of final energy annually. Define its boundaries and energy use clearly; do not isolate a device while ignoring the wider project.
The project’s simple payback without grant must exceed two years: its eligible investment must take more than two years to recover through the savings SEAI counts. Sites covered by the EU Emissions Trading System, which requires emissions allowances, are assessed with allowance savings included. Your incentive statement must show that the grant increases the project’s scope or investment, or speeds its completion. Costs merely to meet legal requirements do not qualify.
Provide a realistic implementation schedule, detailed supplier quotations and transparent savings calculations with their assumptions. All applicable eligibility tests must pass, and the project must score at least 65 out of 100 in SEAI’s assessment of energy and emissions impact, value for money and its design process or delivery capability.
For the EXEED route, submit the project execution plan, energy-use balance, evidence that design choices were challenged and assessed, and the register of energy-saving opportunities. Commit to certification and use an energy-design expert who operates independently of the design team. The alternative route requires evidence of the project lead’s experience, team capability, risk controls and ability to deliver.
For existing-building upgrades without a heat pump, multiple measures must improve primary energy performance by at least 20%; a single measure must improve it by at least 10%. Primary energy includes the energy needed to produce and deliver the energy the building uses. Provide a post-works non-domestic Building Energy Rating and an improvement report. The specific category for building renovation including a space-heating heat pump does not require a post-works rating; the heat pump and associated efficiency measures retain their separate rate rules.
New fossil-fuel-fired equipment, including natural-gas equipment, is excluded. Improvements downstream of existing fossil-fired equipment may qualify where they reduce energy use or improve environmental performance. New products are required. A lighting project must redesign the whole lighting system; replacing lamps alone is excluded. Fisheries, transport emissions unrelated to an on-site process and non-energy projects are excluded. Public-support rules also exclude businesses in financial difficulty and can restrict sectors such as agriculture.
For a third-party-funded project owned and operated by an energy services company (ESCO), that company must apply and meet the applicant conditions. It must disclose the client arrangement and have a signed contract passing the full grant benefit to the client, with no portion retained by the ESCO. The contract must permit SEAI access and inspections.
How to apply
- Tila
- Jatkuva haku
- Hakukierroksen ehdot
- Applications remain open year-round until further notice.
- The Letter of Offer sets the completion window. The limited early-equipment route requires written SEAI confirmation after screening.
- Payment depends on the annual funding allocation and may be deferred when funds are exhausted.
Use the July grant guidelines and technical workbook linked from the official programme page to prepare the Stage 2 application. The organisation’s lead applicant applies through the SEAI PEP portal. Attach the project and cost details, quotations and costed alternatives where needed, savings calculations, solvency and funding declarations, incentive statement, and the required design or delivery-assessment documents. Include applicable permits, VAT and business-size evidence. Only complete applications are evaluated.
Projects requesting at least €250,000 undergo an external technical assessment including a site inspection; SEAI may require this for smaller complex projects too.
Wait for SEAI’s Letter of Offer before ordering, paying for or starting grant-funded work. A limited exception permits equipment orders and deposits up to 50% of the equipment value only after SEAI has screened the application and confirmed its validity in writing. This spending is at your own risk and does not guarantee an award. SEAI may decline the exception for complex projects or new builds.
Sign and return the offer within 14 days of issue. It becomes effective when SEAI receives acceptance. The offer sets the completion date and eligible costs.
Complete, commission and pay for the approved work within the agreed window. Submit the payment request, claim workbook, itemised invoices, bank statements proving full payment, tax clearance, applicable VAT confirmation and inspection spreadsheet with completion evidence by the Project Completion Date. SEAI reviews the work and payment evidence and carries out the required inspection; unresolved defects or incomplete work can prevent payment.
Interim claims cover completed and paid measures. Before audit, inspection and necessary reworks, interim payments are capped at 50% of the grant for those completed measures. SEAI can increase this cap in special circumstances. Partially completed measures, deposits and payments on account cannot support an interim claim.
SEAI retains the lower of 10% of the grant or €30,000 until savings are verified. For the EXEED route, release requires EXEED Verified or Managed certification, or EXEED Designed certification plus measured savings that SEAI has approved for credit towards an obligated energy supplier’s energy-saving target. For the Impactful route, an acceptable measurement-and-verification report is required. Claim the retained amount within 18 months of the Project Completion Date or it expires.
Obtain prior approval for scope changes. Request any extension using SEAI’s form before the original completion date, giving reasons and a proposed new date. Extensions are discretionary and the revised date is final. Approved costs and grants cannot increase. Allow inspections and comply with the agreement; breaches can trigger repayment. Payment depends on the annual funding allocation and can be deferred if funding is exhausted.