Building energy renovation grants
Grants help owners renovate houses and apartment buildings in canton Bern through verified energy-class improvements or Minergie certification.
Esta oportunidade está atualmente disponível em inglês.
The building-renovation route covers planned improvements to the outside of your building, such as its walls and roof, together with its building services. You can carry out the measures in stages during the award's four-year validity; the completed building determines the grant.
Under the GEAK route, a certified cantonal building-energy certificate records your building's efficiency before and after renovation. You must improve both the building-envelope rating and the overall-energy rating by at least two classes; the smaller improvement determines payment. For improvements of two, three, four, five or six classes, the grant is CHF 70, 90, 110, 130 or 160 per m² for single-family houses, and CHF 50, 60, 70, 80 or 90 per m² for apartment buildings. The area is the energy-reference area defined by SIA 380, rather than the area of replaced windows or insulation.
A separately promised GEAK building-envelope bonus pays CHF 90, 70 or 50 per m² when the completed envelope reaches class A, B or C respectively. The basic grant and bonus are each capped at CHF 250,000, allowing up to CHF 500,000 per building. Each component's rate decreases once its calculated contribution exceeds CHF 200,000.
Alternatively, renovate to obtain a final Minergie, Minergie-P or Minergie-A building certificate. The respective grants are CHF 160, 180 and 200 per m² for single-family houses, or CHF 90, 110 and 130 per m² for apartment buildings. This route is capped at CHF 250,000 per building, and the rate decreases above CHF 200,000.
Eligibility
- You must own the residential building in canton Bern, and its building permit must date from before 2000. After renovation, the building must not be heated with oil, gas or electric heating.
- The GEAK route requires a certified GEAK certificate and a GEAK Plus advisory report meeting its product rules. The report must include a whole-renovation scenario reaching B/B/B for envelope efficiency, overall energy efficiency and direct CO2 emissions, or meeting Minergie renovation requirements. Only compelling construction, legal or heritage constraints justify departures, which the GEAK expert must explain; personal or financial reasons do not. If fossil heating exists, at least one scenario must replace it with renewable energy.
- Companies, people or sites exempt from the CO2 levy cannot receive a grant. Buildings wholly or mainly owned by the federal government or canton are excluded. Political municipalities cannot receive these building-renovation grants; that municipal restriction does not apply to church or civic municipalities (Kirch- or Burgergemeinden).
- Funded businesses must ensure equal pay for women and men. Businesses with more than 50 employees receiving a one-off state contribution of at least CHF 250,000 must submit a self-declaration.
- You cannot simultaneously apply to another programme funded from the CO2 levy, such as myclimate, Klik or Renera AG. The emissions savings from the funded measure belong to canton Bern and cannot be divided or transferred to another organisation.
- Include all planned envelope and building-services work in the renovation application. A separate equipment application cannot run alongside it and can only be made at least three years after the renovation grant is paid.
- A further GEAK renovation improving at least two classes within ten years of payment is calculated on the total improvement from the building’s condition before the first funded renovation, minus the previous grant. A Minergie application within ten years after a funded GEAK renovation likewise deducts the grant already paid.
How to apply
- Estado
- Aberto continuamente
- Condições do período de candidaturas
- Submit before construction starts. Apply for payment before the four-year award validity expires.
Apply before building work starts; late applications are not considered. Use the canton’s application instructions to prepare your documents, create a new request in the portal with AGOV identity verification and select “Gebäude” (buildings). Complete the forms and upload your attachments, then print and sign the generated application letter. Send it scanned by email to foerderung.aue@be.ch or by post to Amt für Umwelt und Energie, Laupenstrasse 22, 3008 Bern.
For GEAK renovation, submit the certified GEAK, its publication data extract and the GEAK Plus report. For Minergie renovation, submit the relevant Minergie evidence form as a PDF. After completing the work, request payment in the portal before the four-year award validity expires; after expiry no payment is possible. Include photographs of the completed envelope and building-services measures and either the updated certified GEAK with publication extract or the final Minergie certificate.