Large energy-efficiency investment grant
A competitive grant for businesses and organisations improving existing facilities in Austria through investments of at least €1 million net and annual energy savings of at least 1 GWh.
Denne finansieringsmuligheten er foreløpig beskrevet på engelsk.
Improve existing industrial equipment and processes, recover unused heat, optimise heating in business buildings, or use free cooling from ground, river or well water. Heat pumps can recover low-temperature waste heat. The work must be voluntary and save measurable energy compared with the existing installation.
You bid for the grant you need. This is a non-repayable investment grant, paid after implementation and independent verification of the energy savings. The grant is limited to the lowest of your accepted request, €180 per MWh of planned annual energy savings, 50% of eligible costs, and €2.5 million per project. Eligible costs are the investment costs directly linked to the energy-efficiency improvement; necessary planning and preparation can qualify.
Applications compete on total requested support per unit of annual energy saved, with an advantage for completion within 12 or 18 months of the funding decision. Only projects that can be fully covered by the round's budget receive support. Missing the early-completion period used in your bid cuts the promised grant by 50%.
Eligibility
Businesses, other organisations carrying out business activities, associations and religious institutions can apply. Municipalities cannot. The applicant must bear the project costs, sign the bid and be able to maintain the energy savings throughout the ten-year contract.
- The project must be in Austria. Planned environmental investment costs must reach €1 million net, and the measure must save at least 1 GWh of energy per year that qualifies under the Austrian energy-efficiency rules. The installation must be complete, in full operation and recording evidence of its savings by 31 December 2029. Maintain the environmental benefit for at least ten years from completion.
- Savings must come from improving the existing installation, not reducing capacity or moving it to another site. A capacity increase is allowed only if the required energy savings are still achieved; capacity may increase by no more than 100%.
- Legally required work, routine replacement, repairs, replacement of broken equipment, ordinary modernisation without a substantial technological and environmental improvement, fuel switching alone and new installations without a comparable existing installation are excluded. Projects covered by other offers under Austria’s Umweltförderungsgesetz (UFG), the law governing environmental funding, including building insulation, renewable heat generation and Transformation der Industrie, are excluded.
- Fossil-fuel energy installations, equipment using halogenated hydrocarbons, compulsory ventilation heat recovery, cooling driven by fossil-generated heat, conventional vehicles and transport reductions through moving business sites, reducing transport volumes, increasing transport capacity or integrating processes are excluded. Heat pumps using fluorinated greenhouse gases are excluded if their refrigerant's global warming potential is at least 150 for thermal output up to and including 50 kW, or at least 750 for output above 50 kW.
- Installations in the EU emissions trading system (ETS) can qualify. If a measure saves more than 20 GWh per year AND costs more than €2 million, it qualifies here only if the installation does not make products in the sectors listed in Annex I of the Umweltförderungsgesetz, or demonstrably fails the eligibility benchmarks for Transformation der Industrie. The FAQ directs measures by applicants carrying out Annex I activities to that separate industrial-transformation programme when investment exceeds €2 million and annual CO₂ savings exceed 5,000 tonnes. Its approximate equivalence to 20 GWh does not replace the separate energy-savings test above. Check your activity and products against the official Annex I sector and product list.
- Measures with funding requested, granted or paid by another federal public body are excluded. Provincial support is allowed within EU aid limits only if committed before the bid and included in its pricing; combined aid must not exceed 100% of investment costs. You cannot accept further support after bidding. The guide also excludes work that applicants are obliged to implement under §6 Stromkosten-Ausgleichsgesetz 2025, the electricity-cost compensation law. It states this exclusion subject to the corresponding legislation being adopted.
- For leasing or hire purchase, the funded installation must become the applicant's property no later than the final instalment; payout is limited to payments actually made by final accounting, excluding interest and fees. For an energy-service contract, the party owning and recording the investment applies. If the customer owns and records the investment, it applies; the installation must become its property no later than the final instalment, and payout is limited to the customer’s payments made by final accounting, excluding interest and fees. If that is the service provider, both it and its customer must fit the target group, the customer must sign the bid, the grant's incentive must demonstrably benefit the customer, and the service provider must be able to prove and maintain the savings throughout the grant contract.
How to apply
- Status
- fristen er utløpt
- Åpner
- Søknadsfrist
- Vilkår for søknadsrunden
- Online application deadline; the guide separately requires the signed bid by 16 October 2026 at 12:00 CEST. Both must precede any irreversible commitment.[^c12][^c13][^c16]
Submit the online application through the official page's Online-Einreichung link to Kommunalkredit Public Consulting (KPC). For the July 2026 round, the application deadline is 12 October 2026 at 12:00 CEST. Use the required project-description form and signed bank report. Include measured current energy use, the savings calculation and a cost breakdown. A cost estimate must come from a planning office or supplier offers; an internal estimate is not accepted.
KPC then checks your contact details and emails your named contact a link for the signed bid. The guide sets a separate bid deadline of 16 October 2026 at 12:00 CEST. Both the online application and the uploaded bid must be complete before the earliest binding equipment order, delivery, construction start or other irreversible commitment. For leasing, hire purchase or an energy-service contract, submit both before signing that contract or ordering equipment, whichever is earlier. Submitted documents cannot be changed or supplemented.
You may start after the complete application, including the bid, has been submitted, at your own risk. The minister decides following the commission's recommendation, and KPC sends a grant contract or rejection. A legal entitlement requires accepting the grant contract by returning the signed acceptance within its specified three-month period. Report completion within one month of implementation and commissioning. Submit final accounts within 18 months of completion, with an independent qualified expert's report proving savings over at least one full operating year. The expert must not have worked on the application or its calculations. If achieved savings are more than 25% below the forecast, no grant can be paid. If the planned savings are not achieved in the first operating year, KPC may grant an extension of at most one year in justified cases; this is discretionary, and the savings must still be maintained throughout the contract.
Use the final-accounting form, with an accountant or tax adviser confirming full payment of the project invoices.