Building energy grants
Grants for property owners improving insulation and windows in older Basel-Stadt buildings, with bonuses for better building energy performance.
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You can receive cantonal grants for renovating existing roofs, facades, floors and windows. For component renovations carried out by a contractor, the grant pays CHF 50 per m² of roof or exposed underside, CHF 70 per m² of facade, CHF 40 per m² of walls or floors up to 2 m underground, and CHF 20 per m² for deeper underground walls/floors, attic floors and basement ceilings. Windows receive CHF 50 per m². Insulation uses the renovated element area; windows use the outside masonry-opening area, or the glass-insert area for glass-only replacement. Subtract window openings from the facade area.
The usual minimum is CHF 1,000, with exceptions for actions and eligible measures recommended in a GEAK Plus report. Support is capped at 40% of your investment costs for energy-efficiency measures. Lump-sum grant entitlement is normally limited to CHF 2 million per case; the office can pay the full calculated contribution where approved funds suffice. Other federal and cantonal contributions are taken into account. If approved funds are insufficient, earlier-arising claims have priority.
GEAK Plus is the cantonal building-energy certificate with an advisory report to help plan renovation. Have a GEAK expert selected through geak.ch prepare the report. Apply before commissioning it: after implementing an eligible recommendation, the report grant is CHF 1,000 for a single-family home or CHF 1,500 for a multi-family building, administration building or school. Its grant commitment lasts five years. A separate CHF 500 GEAK Plus action uses a voucher submitted with the certificate and advisory report, even before renovating, and runs until its approved budget is exhausted.
If supported component renovations achieve GEAK building-envelope efficiency class C, B or A, the envelope-efficiency bonus adds respectively CHF 30, 40 or 50 per m² of energy reference floor area. The amount uses the floor area in the building's energy calculation, rather than the surface area of the insulated roofs and walls. A GEAK Plus advisory report is required; where impossible, the specified Federal Office of Energy (BFE) preliminary analysis with recommendations is accepted. The base grant and bonus together remain within 40% of total eligible investment, including component work in the five years up to reaching the target class. You can apply for this bonus once, even if later work achieves a better class.
Aktion Solarkraftwerk Basel adds CHF 50 per m² of photovoltaic module area on a funded renovated roof, or CHF 70 on a funded renovated facade. This doubles the component rate only for the module-covered eligible area. A roof must cover 90% of the solar cadastre's good/best-suitability area or the technically feasible potential; facade modules qualify on each square metre rated good in the solar cadastre. The 40% investment ceiling and larger-grant energy-assessment requirement still apply. This action runs until its approved budget is exhausted.
Eligibility
- Building owners can apply, including businesses and federal, cantonal or municipal owners. Condominium owners can apply jointly through an authorised person. A single application may cover connected heated units, or similar nearby buildings belonging to the same owner; otherwise use separate applications.
- For this component-renovation route, the building's construction-permit year must be before 2000. Normally the parts must already be heated. Exceptions include unheated attic/basement levels directly above/below originally heated floors and unheated circulation areas. Circulation areas must be fully insulated with the facade and remain unheated. When glazing an open walkway, the whole facade, including the low walls along the walkway, must be insulated airtight and the walkway must remain unheated; glazing it alone does not qualify.
- New additions, extra storeys, added heated volume, conservatory/balcony enclosures and insulated balconies, canopies or roof-edge surfaces do not qualify. Existing unchanged areas can remain eligible. A replaced roof in the same position may qualify; replaced facades, displaced/reshaped roofs and newly added dormer surfaces do not. Replacing the top storey together with its roof excludes both replacement areas. New roof terraces and their side/back walls, and existing facade areas covered by an extension, are also excluded. A replacement conservatory qualifies only if the original building rules allowed it to be heated. Insulation to save industrial process energy is excluded.
- U-value measures heat loss through a building element: lower is better. Ordinary solid building elements need U≤0.20 W/m²K; walls/floors more than 2 m underground, attic floors and basement ceilings need U≤0.25. Windows need glass Ug≤0.70 and an insulating edge spacer between the glass panes. Each funded element must improve its U-value by at least 0.07 W/m²K. For protected external roofs/walls/floors, U≤0.25 applies; protected windows may use Ug≤1.1, with heritage-authority confirmation that the ordinary targets cannot be achieved. Protected buildings or elements must be listed as nationally or regionally important in federal, cantonal or municipal inventories, or designated protected by an authority. Protected windows need plastic or stainless-steel glass spacers. Entrance doors need at least 75% glazing; only the glazed area receives the window contribution.
- Show glass performance in the supplier's quote and provide calculations for other elements, identifying layers, materials, thickness and conductivity. Only areas meeting the target qualify: do not average an element's U-value, except that a flat roof's new tapered insulation may use its mean thickness. A Minergie component-module certificate can replace the calculation; it does not require whole-building Minergie certification. Document existing insulation with invoices/delivery notes, old detail plans or photos showing material and thickness.
- If insulation grants exceed CHF 10,000 per property, you need GEAK Plus with an advisory report. If obtaining this is impossible, use the preliminary building analysis specified by BFE. The CHF 10,000 figure is a document trigger, not a grant ceiling.
- Measures already supported by another federal energy/climate programme, or whose emissions savings the federal government certifies through compensation projects or overperformance of voluntary target agreements, are excluded. CO₂-levy-exempt business sites are excluded; another non-exempt site of the same company can qualify. Other economic/NGO aid may be combined if you attach its award, and windows may receive both energy-efficiency and noise-protection support. The comprehensive Minergie-certified renovation grant cannot be combined with this individual-component route.
- Deduct the grant from investment costs when calculating a renovation-related rent increase and your tax-deductible renovation investment. The law requires proportionate repayment, based on actual use, if a funded installation is dismantled before the end of its lifetime.
How to apply
- Status
- Öppet löpande
- Villkor för ansökningsomgången
- Submit before work starts; send the signed application within35 days. Renovation and completion-form submission must finish within the two-year grant commitment. GEAK Plus report grants have a five-year commitment. The two optional actions run until their approved budgets are exhausted.
Apply before starting work through the Gebäudeprogramm portal. Register, complete the online application, then print, check and obtain the owner's signature. A commissioned architect or contractor may apply for you. Send the signed application within 35 days, scanned to energie@bs.ch or by post to Amt für Umwelt und Energie, Abteilung Energie, Spiegelgasse 15, 4001 Basel. Only complete applications are considered. For help using the portal, call the energy office on +41 61 267 08 20.
For a GEAK Plus report grant, apply before commissioning it. For the envelope-efficiency bonus, apply before starting the component work that brings the building to class C, B or A. Mark the photovoltaic action in your roof/facade application. If you add eligible square metres later, notify the office before that additional work starts. For additions or extra storeys alongside the renovation, attach building-permit plans showing the original areas and a detailed area calculation.
The office normally checks the application in five to six weeks; if approved, the commitment lasts two years for the renovation. Complete the work and submit the portal completion form with required documents within those two years, or entitlement expires. For the envelope bonus, update GEAK after renovation and submit it with the completion documents. Send the signed completion documents by email or post. After final approval, the lump-sum grant is paid to an account in the owner's name.