Investment support for CO₂-intensive companies
Grants for businesses heavily affected by Denmark’s CO₂ tax to cut fossil-fuel use through equipment improvements, fuel conversion and eligible domestic vessels.
Questa opportunità è attualmente disponibile in inglese.
Investeringsstøtten helps companies reduce their own fossil-energy emissions through investment in existing equipment. Examples include switching a gas boiler to a heat pump or district heating, electrifying a production process and recovering waste heat for use within the business.
The grant calculation starts at DKK 1,000 per eligible tonne of CO₂ saved over the scheme’s prescribed project lifetime, with future savings discounted to their value today. A factor of 1.25 applies to conversion from fossil fuels to electricity, district heating, hydrogen or biomass. The award is then limited by eligible costs, company size and project type:
| Project | Small company | Medium company | Large company |
|---|---|---|---|
| Energy optimisation | 50% | 40% | 30% |
| Fuel conversion | 60% | 50% | 40% |
| Special heat-pump category | 60% | 55% | 45% |
| Low-emission vessel | 50% | 40% | 20% |
| Zero-emission vessel | 60% | 50% | 30% |
| Fish/aquaculture processing and marketing | 50% | 50% | 50% |
These are ceilings, not guaranteed rates. For large companies buying vessels to provide public passenger transport under an openly, transparently and non-discriminatorily tendered public-service contract, the vessel ceilings rise to 40% for low-emission and 50% for zero-emission vessels. Company size follows the EU definition and may require staff and financial data from partner or group companies.
The minimum grant is DKK 50,000. The normal maximum is the DKK equivalent of €30 million per company per project; small and medium businesses processing or marketing fish or aquaculture products instead have a €1.25 million ceiling per company per year. Currency conversion is finalised at award where the cap is reached. The grant is reduced if necessary so that investment costs after grant, divided by annual energy-cost savings, give a payback period of at least two years. You finance all costs the grant does not cover.
Eligible costs are not always the full purchase price. Heat pumps, heat recovery, added components, vessel upgrades and SME fish-processing projects can use their qualifying investment costs. Other equipment replacements generally deduct the assessed cost of maintaining and modernising existing equipment; the alternative method uses half the investment cost. Buying a cleaner vessel uses its additional cost over the compliant vessel you would otherwise buy. Large fish processors must also document the alternative without support and a funding gap—the discounted difference in project cash flows—which can further limit the grant to what is needed to make the investment viable.
Qualifying expenditure includes equipment, installation, external project advice, environmental approval and required audit work. Internal work, operating costs, staff training, port charging/refuelling equipment and the required climate audit are excluded. Deduct recoverable VAT, discounts and proceeds from replaced equipment. The applicant bears and pays the costs; group-company payments need an explanation.
Leasing can qualify under a written, mutually non-cancellable contract lasting 12 months to 15 years, with specified payments, purchase price and an obligation to take ownership after the final payment. Use the prescribed leasing calculation. Projects processing or marketing fish or aquaculture products cannot include leasing costs.
Eligibility
The scheme serves companies affected by Danish energy and CO₂ taxes, including general industrial processes, refineries, domestic shipping and North Sea activities. The applicant uses its Danish CVR business registration. Both financial-impact conditions must hold:
- Average annual emissions in 2021–2023 of at least 1,500 tonnes CO₂e that are subject to a tax increase under the reform.
- CO₂e intensity of at least 2.3%: the expected annual tax increase in 2030 divided by average 2021–2023 gross value added, calculated from operating profit plus personnel costs.
An authorised or registered auditor must certify these figures before you apply.
Excluded sectors include agriculture, horticulture, forestry, primary fishing and aquaculture, fishing ports and auction halls, electricity and district-heat supply, gas distribution and sale, railways, aviation, inland waterways and international shipping. Non-commercial public authorities and directly administered bodies are excluded.
At award, you must have repaid any EU-incompatible aid subject to a recovery order and must not be an undertaking in difficulty. That test covers accumulated losses exceeding half the relevant company capital, insolvency or eligibility for insolvency proceedings, outstanding rescue loans/guarantees or an ongoing restructuring plan. For non-SMEs, it also applies when both debt exceeds 7.5 times equity and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation cover less than annual interest, over the last two years; the official declaration gives the thresholds and exceptions, including the capital-loss exception for SMEs under three years old. Serious fisheries offences and involvement with listed illegal-fishing vessels or vessels flagged to listed non-cooperating countries also exclude support.
Wait for the agency’s acknowledgement of your application before physical work, dismantling, binding purchases or other irreversible commitments. Planning, advice, permits and buying land may precede it. Starting after acknowledgement remains at your own cost and risk. Existing equipment must work and must have operated for at least 12 months either at the project address or in the same registered production unit, even if that unit moved.
The project cannot be ordinary maintenance, legally required work or work required by an already adopted EU standard. You cannot receive other Danish or foreign public support for the same project costs. Savings caused only by reduced or moved production, changed products or used equipment do not count. For replacements that still partly use fossil fuels, only savings from the non-fossil conversion count; qualifying low-emission vessel replacements can also count improvements to their fossil engine. Follow applicable procurement rules, including rules for publicly supported private construction work.
The special heat-pump funding category and its rates apply to pumps drawing heat from natural air, water or ground sources with a seasonal performance factor of at least 2.3. Other heat pumps can qualify under the conversion category if the project meets the scheme’s conditions. Waste-heat recovery belongs to energy optimisation, and only heat used by your own business to reduce fossil fuels qualifies. Refinery-gas projects also use the optimisation category. New fossil-only equipment, gas-boiler optimisation, comfort ventilation, building-envelope work, IT/server equipment, carbon capture/storage, road vehicles and fishing vessels are outside the scheme; new energy-producing plants are excluded except qualifying hydrogen equipment.
For domestic vessels, zero-emission means electricity or hydrogen only; low-emission means a hybrid or dual-fuel engine with at least 25% of its energy from electricity or hydrogen. The vessel must spend at least 90% of its operating time in Danish waters on domestic routes for ten years from entering service. You retain that obligation after sale or use by another party.
Other hydrogen equipment must use electricity-produced hydrogen, reduce energy-related emissions and achieve at least 70% lifecycle greenhouse-gas savings against 94 gCO₂e/MJ. This applies throughout its depreciation period, including after sale or third-party use. The guidance exempts vessels and refinery-gas reduction projects whose purpose is not to use or increase hydrogen production from these hydrogen-specific conditions.
How to apply
- Stato
- Date non annunciate
Apply in Energistyrelsen’s portal through the official programme page. Only one active application may cover the same project across Investeringsstøtten and Erhvervspuljen. Prepare your before-and-after technical description, energy invoices, expected consumption, budget and prior auditor statement. A representative needs a signed power of attorney. Use the mandatory calculation tools where applicable.
Normally document baseline fuel use with the latest 12 consecutive invoiced months or the annual average of the latest 36 consecutive months. Use the agency’s mandatory energy prices, emission factors, lifetimes and other assumptions. Large fish processors must follow the separate calculation guidance, including its portal adjustment when the funding gap is below 50% of eligible costs.
Accept an award within 14 days after the agency notifies it. Normally complete the project and request payment within two years and three months after that notification. Submit requested status reports. Eligible changes to the final technical solution can be reported at payment; advance approval is available, but the original baseline must remain valid. Request any deadline extension before the deadline; requesting it does not itself extend the period.
Before requesting payment, complete and obtain acceptance of the required climate audit (klimasyn), documenting the company’s energy use and reduction options. Provide the completed project, realised savings, accounts, invoices and proof of payment. A project-account audit is mandatory for payment requests of DKK 500,000 or more; below that, submit all accounting/payment evidence or choose an audit. Payment normally follows completed, paid work to the company’s NemKonto; eligible leasing or credit purchases can receive annual instalments as payments are documented. Keep records for at least five years from the end of the final reporting year.