Energy advice for non-residential buildings and business operations

Municipalities, municipal associations whose members are exclusively German municipal authorities, nonprofit organisations, religious communities with public-law corporation status and their institutions, and foundations covered by §5(1)(9) of the Corporation Tax Act can apply. Businesses and self-employed professionals must have their registered seat and operations in Germany.

• Small and medium-sized businesses must have fewer than 250 employees and either annual turnover of no more than €50 million or a balance-sheet total of no more than €43 million. Include the relevant figures of linked and partner businesses when checking these limits. A business is anyone offering goods or services on a market, regardless of legal form or profit motive; this includes a landlord renting out a non-residential building.
• Other businesses normally qualify only if their annual energy use across all energy sources is no more than 500,000 kWh. This is measured for the smallest legally independent applicant, without adding partner or linked companies’ energy use. For a municipal undertaking without its own legal personality, the municipality applies but the undertaking’s energy use determines the limit.
• For Module 2, the 500,000 kWh restriction does not apply to nonprofit organisations, religious communities with corporation status and their institutions, or qualifying foundations when treated as larger businesses for the advice. For Module 3, hospitals and care facilities are exempt from this restriction if at least 25% of their capital or voting rights is controlled, individually or jointly, by municipalities, nonprofit organisations, religious communities with corporation status or qualifying foundations.
• You must own the building for Modules 2 and 3. For Module 1, tenants and leaseholders can also receive support. The non-residential portion of a mixed-use residential building can qualify for Module 2 only if §106 GEG requires a separate energy assessment for that portion; rooms serving ordinary household purposes, such as communal kitchens and bathrooms in residential homes, count as residential use.
• For Module 2 advice on an existing building, the building-permit application or building notification must date back at least ten years when you submit the funding application. This requirement does not apply to new-build advice.
• Module 3 normally requires annual energy costs of at least €100,000 excluding VAT for the building or building group. Several buildings can be grouped together. A municipality with fewer than 50,000 inhabitants can include its whole street-lighting energy bill once. Below €100,000, the adviser must explain the potential suitability for a contract with a savings guarantee in the application.

Use an adviser listed for your chosen module in the official energy-efficiency expert list. An on-site assessment is mandatory.

Mandatory audits and other services required by law or an authority, energy certificates, construction supervision and advice concerning predominantly residential buildings, including residential old-age and care homes, are excluded.

Audit support is also incompatible with the peak-load energy-tax relief known as Spitzenausgleich, including an alternative system under §3 no. 2 SpaEfV, and audits used to obtain the special EEG levy limitation.

Companies with suitably qualified in-house staff and activities excluded by the EU de minimis rules, including primary agricultural production, fisheries and aquaculture, are ineligible. For economic activities, this grant and other public support awarded under the de minimis aid rules count together towards a €300,000 ceiling over three years. Declare this aid when applying. An award that would exceed the ceiling cannot be paid or reduced to fit.

You cannot combine EBN with another federal programme for the same advice. Funding the investments recommended by the adviser is allowed separately. Other non-federal advice support can bring total public funding to no more than 90% of eligible costs. For a financially weak municipality required under state law to prepare a budget-consolidation plan, the combined limit is 95%, with evidence of that obligation; EBN itself still covers at most 50%.

Module 1 is available once per applicant in four years. Module 2 normally also permits one funded consultation per business or self-employed applicant in four years. Municipalities and the other eligible non-business applicant groups can obtain Module 2 advice for different buildings. The same exception applies to businesses outside the small and medium-sized category (non-SMEs) if one or more municipalities own more than 50% of them, directly or indirectly. Both groups must wait four years before another grant for the same building. The four years run from payment of the previous grant, including predecessor-programme funding. Module 3 can be funded repeatedly for different buildings or building groups.

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Choose a listed adviser for the relevant module and obtain a cost estimate. Register in the BAFA portal and submit an EBN application, attaching the estimate and the adviser’s self-declaration. Your adviser can apply on your behalf with a power of attorney.

Apply before committing to the advice and wait for BAFA’s grant approval before the adviser starts work. You may sign a contract earlier only if it takes effect on the condition that BAFA approves the grant; a contract that merely allows cancellation after refusal does not qualify. Preliminary planning, including obtaining a quote, can happen before applying.

Complete the advice within the approval period, normally 12 months from the grant decision. Completion means the report has been prepared, delivered to you and explained. Pay the full advice fee, then submit the completion declaration, adviser’s report, invoice, evidence of non-cash payment and the signed post-advice declaration through the BAFA portal, no later than three months after the approval period ends. BAFA pays you after checking the documents. Municipalities can instead use the payment authorisation that allows payment to the adviser.

Check the submission deadline in your grant decision: since 2025, missing it automatically invalidates the award. Apply before the deadline if you need an extension; BAFA permits a one-off extension of six months.