Climate-friendly refrigeration grants
Grants for businesses, municipalities and institutions installing efficient refrigeration and air-conditioning systems with halogen-free refrigerants in Germany.
Ez a lehetőség jelenleg angolul érhető el.
The Kälte-Klima-Richtlinie supports new or replacement stationary cooling equipment, process-waste-heat pumps and dry coolers added to existing systems to use outside air for cooling before or instead of running the refrigeration unit. Eligible technologies include liquid chillers, direct-expansion systems, heat-driven absorption and adsorption cooling, and indirect evaporative cooling. Halogen-free refrigerants include propane, isobutane, ammonia and carbon dioxide.
With a supported refrigeration unit, you can also fund compatible air coolers, heat-rejection coolers, chilled-water or brine pipes, thermal storage, deep-freezing stages and equipment that recovers the unit’s waste heat. Air-cooler capacity may exceed the refrigeration unit’s capacity by no more than 30%. Refrigerant pipes and heat-distribution pipes do not receive the separate brine-pipe subsidy. The waste-heat-recovery and heat-pump-operation supplements cannot be combined.
Nearby existing or new solar PV or wind generation can be integrated to supply the cooling system; solar thermal integration is limited to heat-driven absorption or adsorption cooling. Only one electricity or heat integration supplement is available. The renewable installation must be commissioned by submission of the completion evidence. A combined heat-and-power plant may supply heat, but its integration receives no renewable-energy subsidy.
Small-system retrofits must replace the existing fluorinated refrigerant with 0.5–10 kg of hydrocarbon refrigerant and add pressure-controlled speed regulation to the condenser fan. Optional additions are an electronic expansion valve, compressor speed control and an internal heat exchanger or contact between the suction and liquid pipes. The mandatory package pays €750 for suction-pipe nominal diameter up to DN25, €1,000 above DN25 up to DN40, or €1,600 above DN40. Optional additions pay €400 for the valve, €750 for compressor control up to 3 kW inverter input or €1,100 above 3 kW, and €500 for the heat exchanger.
For other measures, de minimis aid uses equipment-specific formulas based on cooling or heating capacity, storage size and pipe length and internal diameter. This is a limited category of public business aid: disclose aid received over the preceding rolling three years so BAFA can check the applicable cumulative ceiling. Across de minimis measures, including small retrofits, the programme grant is capped at €200,000 per measure and 50% of eligible expenditure. Equipment below its category’s minimum size receives no subsidy; above most upper limits the amount is capped at that limit. Direct-expansion ammonia systems have a separate maximum of 1,000 kW, with the amount capped at 600 kW.
If the de minimis ceiling would be exceeded, eligible installation measures can instead use the General Block Exemption Regulation, known in Germany as AGVO. This route pays up to 15% of eligible investment costs, 17.5% for medium enterprises and 20% for small enterprises, still capped at €200,000 per measure. BAFA asks for employee numbers, turnover and balance-sheet totals to assess EU SME status: small enterprises have fewer than 50 employees and turnover or balance sheet at most €10 million; medium enterprises fall within the fewer-than-250-employee test and turnover at most €50 million or balance sheet at most €43 million. The EU Annex I rules govern the classification, including how the enterprise is assessed; the figures alone do not replace that classification. Recoverable VAT is excluded from the eligible cost basis. Small-system retrofits use de minimis only.
Use the NKI funding calculator for an indicative installation grant, with the BAFA leaflet’s prescribed design conditions. It does not calculate AGVO aid or small-system retrofit grants. Renewable electricity integration funding is calculated only up to twice the supported main unit’s electrical input at those conditions. Solar thermal integration receives a one-off €2,000. The heat-pump-operation supplement adds 15% of the refrigeration-unit grant, waste-heat recovery adds 5%, and eligible control equipment for pre-cooling or free cooling receives €750; the overall ceilings still apply.
Eligibility
Businesses, nonprofits, municipalities, municipal associations and enterprises, universities, schools, hospitals and church institutions can apply, whether or not they seek profit. Individuals, federal states and their institutions or state-owned companies are excluded, except for the explicitly eligible institutions above. For a municipal enterprise without separate legal personality, the municipality applies. The applicant must own, lease or rent the installation site, or be its appointed energy contractor. The equipment must be in Germany.
Two contracting arrangements qualify. Under energy-savings contracting (Energieeinspar-Contracting), the contractor finances, plans, implements and oversees energy-saving measures, guarantees savings in your energy costs and receives a share of those savings as payment. Under energy-supply contracting (Energieliefer-Contracting), the contractor plans, builds, finances and maintains an energy-supply installation, and you buy the energy under agreed terms. The contract must run at least five years, with the contractor operating the system and bearing operating risk. Financing-only, operating-management-only and sham contracting are excluded.
Compression systems must meet the programme’s efficiency and design requirements. Enter the planned and installed design data in BAFA’s free EffizienzCheck software: its seasonal efficiency value, SEPR, must be strictly greater than its reference minimum, MEPS. For new installations the directive requires proof at application and completion; small retrofits require proof after conversion. An air-conditioning system within a ventilation installation can instead demonstrate efficiency through the Qualitätssiegel Raumlufttechnik, BAFA’s quality seal for that installation. BAFA explicitly requires the planned-system report with applications from 20 kW compressor electrical input.
The compression-design rules cover at least one compressor per group with output adjustable from 40% to 100%, demand-controlled defrost, electronic expansion valves, condenser control that follows outdoor temperature, variable-speed pumps and hydraulic balancing, which adjusts flow and temperature in the fluid circuits. For compressor control, electronic expansion valves and outdoor-temperature condenser control, the leaflet permits alternatives shown to have little energy impact. Specific small-system alternatives also apply: stored-water/brine chillers can use four output steps, or three below 15 kW; below 5 kW no output regulation is needed. Direct-expansion systems up to 15 kW may regulate continuously down to 60%, without hot-gas bypass. Buffer-storage charging pumps need not have speed control. Electricity meters are required from 3 kW compressor input, or 5 kW input including auxiliaries for other cooling generators. For the meter requirement, use the total power of all installations included in one application. If several liquid chillers or individual water-loop systems share one water/brine circuit, one electricity meter is sufficient. Indirect compression systems also need a heat meter, commissioned with the cooling equipment.
Heat-driven cooling must mainly use waste heat or a renewable heat source. Evaporative cooling must act indirectly, cooling the intended air stream through a heat exchanger rather than directly wetting that air. Standalone heat pumps must use process waste heat for separate heating or a process; equipment mainly using ambient heat is excluded. Wastewater counts as process heat. Small retrofits must comply with TRGS 722 on hazardous substances and explosion risks, the Pressure Equipment Directive and DIN EN 378 refrigeration safety recommendations, and follow the specialist retrofit guidance.
Systems mainly serving retail display cabinets and plug-in display cabinets are excluded. The leaflet describes an exception for sales areas no larger than 250 m² where less than 50% of cooling capacity serves display cabinets; combined refrigeration systems with display cabinets must likewise keep the cabinet share below 50%, documented through product data or a cooling-demand calculation.
Other funding for the same measure cannot be combined with this grant. Prototypes, used or self-built systems, repairs, routine maintenance and running costs are excluded. The eligible investment-cost list also excludes planning and advisory fees, building works, dismantling, delivery and lifting-in costs, permits, inspections, insurance and work you perform yourself. Solar and wind generation equipment and solar collectors themselves are excluded; their eligible integration is treated separately.
Applicants with an insolvency application or proceeding are excluded, as are those required to submit, or who have submitted, a statutory statement of assets under section 802c of the Civil Procedure Code or section 284 of the Fiscal Code. For a legal entity, the relevant duties of its legal representative also count. Companies in difficulty under EU state-aid rules, companies with an outstanding EU aid-recovery order and activities excluded by AGVO Article 1 cannot receive funding. The governing financial-condition test is Article 2(18) of that regulation.
Operate the installation for its funded purpose for at least five years after commissioning, or two years for small retrofits. Do not shut it down during that period; sale requires approval and transfer of the funding obligations to the new owner. Installations under sections 2.1–2.4 need five years of regular maintenance under VDMA 24186, through a specialist firm or an in-house refrigeration master craftsperson, technician or engineer. Systems up to 5 kW cooling output instead need annual condenser/cooler cleaning by the operator; regular maintenance is recommended for small retrofits. Provide annual operating information for three years after commissioning and cooperate with evaluation and checks.
How to apply
- Állapot
- lezárul 2026. dec. 31.
- Megnyílik
- Lezárul
- Az adott pályázati kör feltételei
- Approval depends on available budget; wait for the grant notice before starting.[^c24][^c43]
Apply through BAFA’s electronic refrigeration and air-conditioning application form. Applications are accepted through 31 December 2026; BAFA says the directive will not be extended. Submit the technical system description, flow diagram, BAFA-design capacity calculation and main-component data, plus group structure, nonprofit status or contracting documents where applicable. Heat-driven cooling also needs its equipment data and available driving-heat output.
Apply before starting, then wait until you receive the grant notice before signing a binding supply or installation contract. Planning may precede the application. If you seek offers or tender before approval, explicitly make contract award conditional on the grant and confirm compliance with the applicable public-grant procurement rules. The work covered by an order must fall within the approval period.
Complete and formally accept small-system retrofits within six months of receiving the grant notice; other measures have 24 months. Request any extension before that period expires. Tell BAFA about design changes: the installed system must still qualify, and a recalculated grant cannot exceed the amount originally approved.
Submit the completion report and expenditure evidence through BAFA’s completion portal within three months after acceptance, and no later than three months after the approval period ends. Include the relevant technical proof, supplier contract, specialist installer declaration and invoices; installation projects also require the acceptance record, final flow diagram and applicable maintenance and renewable commissioning evidence. Small retrofits require the installed-system EffizienzCheck result under the directive. BAFA pays the grant once, after checking all required evidence and once the grant notice has become legally final.
Keep the de minimis aid certificate for ten years. If an authority requests it, supply it within one week or the longer deadline stated in that request; use it to disclose previous aid when applying for future funding.