Efficient heat-network grants (BEW)

• Eligible applicants are entrepreneurs within §14 of the German Civil Code (BGB), municipalities carrying out economic activity, municipal enterprises and in-house operations, municipal associations, registered associations and registered cooperatives. For Module 1, you must control implementation or show agreement with the decision-maker. For Modules 2 and 3, you generally must acquire the funded equipment; applying to sell the network to someone else is excluded. Module 4 must have the same applicant as the associated investment grant.
• Energy-service contractors can apply when they invest in their own name and on their own account, take the financial and technical risk, and undertake planning, construction, operation, repair and optimisation with contractual guarantees. Their customer need not be an eligible applicant. Supply the contracting agreement at least in draft with the application, and the final agreement and Annex 2 declarations by the first interim report or final use-of-funds report.
• The funded network is in Germany and must serve at least 17 buildings or 101 dwellings by the end of the relevant grant period. For a new network built in packages, this means the package in which it enters service. A single building with 101 dwellings still needs another connected building. Buildings needing only process heat may connect but do not count towards the building threshold.
• New networks must obtain at least 75% of heat from renewable energy and/or waste heat by that point. Existing-network conversions do not have this immediate 75% test; they need a credible path through 2030, 2035 and 2040 to greenhouse-gas neutrality in 2045. Module 2 requires a compliant feasibility study or transformation plan; a prior Module 1 grant is unnecessary, but a transformation project must have completed at least HOAI planning phase 3, with cost calculations or indicative offers to substantiate expenditure.
• An existing network must have operated and supplied heat to end customers for at least one year. Module 3 applications without a transformation plan ended on 15 September 2025. With a plan, support addresses an unforeseen opportunity or substantial planning change needed for decarbonisation after the first package has been implemented. A previously approved Module 2 application also permits a qualifying addition; BAFA extends this route to projects with a feasibility study. The existing network must meet the technical criteria or already run entirely on renewable energy.
• New-network supply temperature normally cannot exceed 95°C. Existing networks must aim to reach 95°C by 2045; a higher final temperature needs a substantiated technical or economic justification. BAFA allows an exception where an eligible source supplies hotter heat throughout the year and reducing temperature would not materially improve its use. Customer-side temperature increases are allowed but generally are not funded. Module 2 can nevertheless fund a hybrid transfer station where its electric reheating raises only drinking-water temperature, rather than producing heat for the building’s space heating. The network-to-building heat-transfer components and electric reheating must be structurally integrated. A separate heat pump installed centrally for a building’s drinking-water heating can also qualify. These investment exceptions do not extend Module 4 operating support to decentralised heat pumps. New networks permit at most 10% gas/oil boiler heat and at most 25% gas/oil heat including combined heat and power; coal heat is excluded. Existing conversions must explain how fossil plants will be switched off by 2045.
• Biomass shares depend on total distribution-pipe length. Below 20 km there is no share cap. At 20–50 km, the new-network limit is 35% and the final 2045 limit for new and converted networks is 25%. Above 50 km the corresponding limits are 25% and 15%. Eligible biomass must meet sustainability and fuel rules and use residues, rather than plants grown specifically for combustion or materials that can be reused. Boilers also have emission limits. Biomass operating hours are capped at 4,000 a year for 20–50 km networks and 2,500 above 50 km, excluding operation below 5% output to maintain readiness.
• Solar thermal and photovoltaic-thermal modules need Solar Keymark certification. Heat pumps must meet the EU F-gas regulation; refrigerants with a global-warming potential above 400 require a justification for not using a natural lower-impact refrigerant. Operating support covers central electric heat pumps using eligible heat sources such as waste heat, air, ground or water. Mixed eligible/ineligible sources require at least 90% eligible heat over the year and separate measurement. Optimisation pumps, including decentralised pumps supplied by a heat network, do not receive operating support. Cooling is allowed, but its electricity is excluded.
• For heat-pump operating support, seasonal performance (SCOP) or measured annual heat output divided by electricity input (JAZ) must be at least 2.5. If the manufacturer supplies no SCOP for the system, calculate or simulate JAZ from its data. Below 2.5, the commissioning year and one further calendar year can still receive support; the latter needs an informal request. Other below-threshold years receive no payment, and if 2.5 is never achieved, all operating aid must be repaid. Heat pumps in Module 2 applications submitted before 1 January 2026 follow the earlier quality-factor rules. Direct fossil-generated electricity outside the public grid is excluded, with an individually approved accounting-separation exception where electrical separation is impossible.
• Keep the funded network in compliant operation and normally in your ownership for ten years after commissioning, with annual confirmation to BAFA. Restructuring transfers need prior coordination and BAFA approval; letting the network is generally possible, but you retain the duties and the tenant cannot apply for these funded assets. Do not combine BEW with other state aid for the same eligible expenditure. Aid-free loans and guarantees are exempt. Do not apply to several schemes in parallel merely to choose one later.
• Previously completed studies cannot be funded again. For eligible procurement, seek three competitive offers where possible and document the selection; up to €15,000 net, comparison offers may be waived. Statutory procurement duties still apply.
• Building heat-connection stations qualify only where you have no right to recover their cost from the customer. Where connection and use are compulsory, only digital intelligent stations qualify. Waste heat means an unavoidable by-product of industrial, commercial or service processes that would otherwise be discharged unused; using it must not prevent reasonable efficiency improvements. Heat produced for sale, combined heat and power, thermal waste treatment and fossil-heated wastewater do not qualify as waste heat.

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Condițiile sesiunii de finanțare

• Awards depend on available public funds. Module 3 applications without a transformation plan ended on 15 September 2025. Since 1 April 2026, Module 1 transformation-plan creation is supported only for industrial process-heat networks; early planning remains eligible for all network types.

Choose the appropriate module and read BAFA's April 2026 application and technical rules. Since 14 April 2026, new Module 1 applications for new-network feasibility studies and associated phases 2–4 planning go through Förderzentrale Deutschland. Existing-network Module 1 planning and industrial process-heat transformation plans, and Modules 2–4, use BAFA's existing portals linked on the programme page. The document-upload and use-of-funds channels are distinct; use the application link for a new funding request.

Apply and normally wait for the grant decision before signing implementation supply or service contracts. A contract signed earlier may qualify if it already contains an explicit condition tied to grant approval or a clear withdrawal right if funding is refused. Planning and advice may begin earlier when they are not the sole funded purpose; this exception does not allow an early start to Module 1 studies or planning. Framework contracts may pre-date the decision, but the funded individual order must follow it. Customer heat-supply agreements are allowed. BAFA can exceptionally authorise an early Module 2 start after a reasoned request; start only from the authorised date and at your own risk.

Submit the module's project description, planning material, financing details and funding-gap calculation where required. Provide a detailed financing plan: Module 1 uses offers or detailed estimates; Modules 2 and 3 use cost calculations broken down into quantities and units. The funded work and corresponding expenditure normally must fall within the grant period. In the final Module 2 report, later invoices and payments may exceptionally be accepted if the corresponding work was fully completed within that period. For a new Module 2 network, commissioning must occur within six months after the relevant grant period ends; the renewable-share and size criteria remain due at the end of that period.

For the full ten-year Module 4 operating-support period, apply before the equipment enters service. A later application shortens support by the elapsed time since commissioning. The application needs the funding-gap calculation, plant description and heat/electricity metering concept. Where you apply before the commissioning year, the initial decision may reserve funds for only part of the ten years; after commissioning, request the remainder, subject to budget and eligibility. Meter only eligible heat actually used by the network, separating cooling, ineligible sources and any rejected heat.

Payment follows BAFA's examination of your evidence of expenditure and results. Submit final reports for Modules 1 and 3 within three months after the grant period; Module 2 needs annual interim reports within three months after each funding year and a final report within three months after the period. A Module 2 funding year starts with the grant period, rather than on 1 January. Module 4 uses calendar-year reports due by 31 March of the following year, including measured heat and electricity, operating costs and customer heat prices. If no eligible investment occurs in a Module 2 year, send the required progress explanation and revised financing plan instead. Awards depend on available public funds.

Your reports also need confirmation by an auditor or tax adviser that the figures match the accounts and supporting records and that payments were made. Municipalities and municipal in-house operations can instead use their municipal audit office. This confirmation is required even for exclusively internal expenditure, and its cost is not eligible.