Renewable self-generation grant for SMEs
Grants for SMEs to install rooftop solar or small wind systems for their own electricity use at a production site in Italy.
Tämän rahoitusmahdollisuuden kuvaus on toistaiseksi englanniksi.
This offer funds either solar photovoltaic systems or small wind systems, with installation, commissioning and digital equipment needed to operate them. The two generation technologies cannot be combined in one project. Storage behind the electricity meter can be added, but must obtain at least 75% of the energy it stores each year from the directly connected renewable system. Storage, digital equipment and an audit cannot be funded on their own.
Eligible project costs must total €30,000–€1 million; this is the investment range, not the grant amount. Generation equipment and related digital costs receive up to 40% for micro and small enterprises or 30% for medium enterprises. Storage receives up to 30%. An optional pre-investment energy audit receives up to 50%, with eligible audit costs limited to 3% of the other eligible equipment and storage costs. An audit required by other legislation is not eligible. The December 2025 amendment removed the programme’s mandatory audit requirement, while preserving eligible audit costs. Eligible expenditure, including an audit, must follow the application.
New equipment, directly related installation costs and commissioning are covered. Except for equipment acquired through financial leasing, funded equipment must be recorded as depreciable assets on the company’s balance sheet. Masonry work, used goods, work performed using the applicant’s own resources, land or building purchases and rentals, routine consultancy, management services and payments to suppliers without a VAT number are excluded. Individual independent items costing less than €500 excluding VAT are excluded. VAT is eligible only when legally irrecoverable and tracked for the project. Suppliers must be independent and charge market prices; a related supplier is allowed only if the applicant demonstrated at application that it was the sole supplier of that equipment.
Financial leasing is allowed if contracted after application and the company commits at signing to buy the equipment at the end of the lease. The eligible investment is based on the lessor’s acquisition cost. Payment covers qualifying lease instalments actually paid within 20 months of the award, excluding interest and contract charges. Support can cover up to the full eligible instalment amount until the grant calculated on the equipment cost is reached. The lease must require the lessor to report missed payments.
Eligibility
- You must be a micro, small or medium enterprise under the EU SME definition, operating in Italy. Applicants must be legally incorporated and active in the business register. An overseas company instead needs equivalent legal registration in its home country and must demonstrate that its Italian production site is available when requesting the first grant payment.
- You need ordinary accounting and at least one approved, filed annual account; sole traders and partnerships may instead have filed at least one income-tax return. You must be current with social-security contributions, outside liquidation or insolvency proceedings aimed at liquidation, and must not fall into the EU financial-distress category called an “undertaking in difficulty”. Invitalia checks this requirement in its eligibility assessment; check the formal definition in Article 2(18) of Regulation (EU) No 651/2014, referenced in Article 5(1)(d) of the base decree. Outstanding recovery orders for unlawful EU aid, unpaid revoked ministry grants, relevant criminal convictions, disqualifying sanctions and anti-mafia restrictions exclude applicants.
- Coal, primary agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture are excluded, as are listed fossil-fuel, waste and nuclear activities. Check the primary or prevailing ATECO activity code in the business register against Annex 1 of the implementing decree and its conversion table. Energy-intensive businesses on the CSEA register are excluded, as are businesses in the EU emissions trading system whose expected emissions are at or above the relevant benchmark. Vehicle producers, sellers and lessors qualify only if at least 50% of gross revenue at the project’s production site comes from zero-emission vehicles.
- The project must serve one production site in your full legal control, on a business building already existing at application or the roof of a permanently associated structure. Ground-mounted plants are excluded. The business building and associated structures must be registered with the Chamber of Commerce. Ownership, qualifying rental, property leasing and usufruct can demonstrate control; a free loan for use cannot. A registered rental must last at least three years after investment completion, include the installation roof and have the electricity account in the applicant’s name. Rented premises in a condominium also need a roof surface right lasting at least as long as the rental.
- The electricity is intended for the site’s own consumption; surplus can be stored, supplied to permitted collective self-consumption arrangements or fed to the grid. Replacing a plant is eligible only for the entire plant and with improved energy efficiency; expansion can cover the plant itself, excluding masonry or structural works.
- Start after applying: a binding equipment order, invoice or payment can count as starting. Complete within 18 months of the award. For direct purchases, completion means the date of the last expense document reported and accepted as eligible; for leasing, it means the date of the last equipment delivery record. The project must meet environmental, planning and building rules, undergo environmental impact assessment or screening where required, and meet DNSH: it must not significantly harm the EU’s environmental objectives.
- The same eligible costs cannot receive other notified or block-exempt State aid, including de minimis aid. Other support outside State-aid rules can be combined only within the full eligible cost, and the same cost cannot be reimbursed twice.
How to apply
- Tila
- haku päättynyt
- Haku alkaa
- Haku päättyy
- Hakukierroksen ehdot
- Closed second intake.
Applications are closed. The first intake closed on 17 June 2025 and the second on 10 November 2025. The 2026 rankings and additions concern existing applications. Check Invitalia’s official page for programme notices and beneficiary instructions.
Applications were submitted online in Invitalia’s reserved area with SPID, CNS or CIE digital identity, a digital signature and certified email (PEC). Selection uses a ranking based on additional renewable capacity, financial sustainability and environmental certifications, with bonuses for a legality rating or gender-equality certification.
For approved investments, request payment through Invitalia’s personal area using its forms. The legal representative or authorised delegate signs digitally. For direct purchases, submit the final or single payment request within 60 days of completion and full payment of costs, and no later than 60 days after the maximum completion deadline. Include payment evidence and the final technical report; the plant must be operating. Leasing has a specific final-request deadline of 20 months after the award.
Tell Invitalia in advance, with reasons, about company or project changes so it can check continued eligibility. Changes in total costs or amounts within cost categories are assessed at payment and do not need prior notification. Changes cannot increase the award.
Pay by bank transfer, SEPA transfer or Ri.Ba. bank receipt and keep traceable project accounts and records available for inspection, display the EU funding acknowledgement, put the project code (CUP) on project accounting documents and answer monitoring requests. Keep equipment in the supported productive use for three years after completion; obsolete or broken equipment may be replaced. Transfer of the supported economic activity within five years can trigger withdrawal under the statutory relocation rules. Breaching payment deadlines or other obligations can cause full or partial withdrawal and recovery; a fully withdrawn grant must be repaid with statutory interest.