Energiefonds energy-investment loan
Loans for small and medium-sized businesses investing in energy savings or renewable energy in Apeldoorn when they cannot obtain full financing elsewhere.
Ta możliwość jest obecnie dostępna po angielsku.
Finance measures such as solar panels, heat pumps, LED lighting, building insulation or energy-efficient equipment. This entry covers the small-scale business loan, which the municipality lends directly to your business.
Borrow €5,000–€50,000 per project. You can receive one loan per project, with no more than €50,000 per business in a calendar year. Below €25,000, the loan can cover up to 75% of the investment; above €25,000, it covers up to 50%. At €25,000, the range covered here is limited to 50%. If a new loan brings your annual total above €25,000, that new loan is also limited to 50%.
The published business interest rate is 2.5%, fixed once agreed, for a term of at most 15 years. The municipality currently describes monthly annuity payments: a fixed payment covers interest and repayment, so the outstanding loan falls over time. The rules also permit linear repayment, where the principal is repaid in equal instalments. Monthly repayments use automatic debit, and early repayments can be made each year without a charge.
Funding is paid after receipt of the final invoice. Other subsidies can be combined, but the municipality adjusts this loan as needed to keep the combined support lawful under State-aid rules.
Eligibility
- Your business must be a micro, small or medium-sized enterprise under Annex I to Regulation 800/2008, formed under Dutch law with full legal capacity: a legal person, partnership of legal persons or partnership of natural persons. You must be registered with the Chamber of Commerce (KvK). The European Commission’s practical SME overview uses fewer than 250 staff and annual turnover of no more than €50 million or a balance-sheet total of no more than €43 million; data from a larger group may also count.
- The project must take place within Apeldoorn, demonstrably advance its energy transition, and not proceed without this loan. You must be unable to arrange full financing elsewhere. Finance must benefit the named project rather than unrelated activities of parent, subsidiary or sister businesses.
- The municipality checks whether you can repay the loan. Your financial strength, measured by solvency, must be strictly above 30%, and your forecast of cash available for payments (liquidity) must be positive over six months. It also assesses whether the technology’s price relative to energy output differs by no more than 50% from comparable usual projects.
- You must not be an EU “undertaking in difficulty”. For an SME, this includes insolvency proceedings or meeting the domestic criteria for creditor-requested insolvency; a rescue loan not yet repaid or rescue guarantee not yet ended, or an ongoing restructuring plan; and, for companies with limited liability or members with unlimited liability, loss of more than half the relevant capital through accumulated losses. The capital-loss tests exclude SMEs less than three years old. A separate exception concerns eligibility for risk-finance aid through a financial intermediary, after that intermediary has assessed the business; this direct municipal loan is a different route. You must sign a declaration that your business is not in difficulty. An outstanding EU order to recover unlawful and incompatible State aid also excludes you.
- Only reasonable project investment and costs, including labour, qualify. Costs already committed before the application is received and costs you can recover are excluded. Realise the project within six months after signing the financing agreement; you may request one written extension of up to six months. Keep the project in place throughout the loan.
- Keep the application records accessible for at least five years after the financing documentation is issued, or longer if the loan runs longer. Immediately report in writing and with reasons any likely failure to deliver or comply, plans to stop activities or dissolve the entity, relevant financial or organisational changes involving third parties, and changes to legal form, directors or objectives. The signed agreement permits the municipality to communicate about the project anonymously.
- Maintain accounts showing assets, debts, equity, results and activities, keep records for the statutory accounting retention period, and provide access and information to municipal inspectors.
How to apply
- Status
- Nabór ciągły
- Warunki naboru
- Contact the fund manager or use the municipality’s online application form; approvals depend on assessment and available budget.
Contact the municipality’s fund manager at energiefonds@apeldoorn.nl with a short project description and the amount you wish to borrow, or call 14 055 and ask for the fund manager. If you already have concrete plans and an installation or construction quote, the municipality invites you to apply through its online form linked from the Energiefonds page.
Apply at least twelve weeks before starting the activities, and before committing the costs you want financed. Include a detailed quote, project activities and intended results, a budget and financing plan, details of other support sought or received, a de minimis declaration of State aid, and the signed financial-distress declaration. Legal entities also provide their latest annual report and accounts; an entity less than a year old or being formed can supply its founding budget. Legal entities applying for the first time provide the incorporation deed or statutes. The municipality may request further project-specific information.
Complete applications are handled in order of receipt, subject to the available budget and assessment. After finishing a project financed above €10,000, ask the municipality to formally confirm the final support (subsidievaststelling) within twelve weeks, with a report showing delivery and compliance. At €50,000, also provide a financial report and a balance sheet with explanatory notes. An auditor’s statement is required if specified in the control protocol, scheme or award; the award may set different deadlines or documentation.