Vale Eficiência energy-efficiency vouchers
Vouchers for financially vulnerable households in mainland Portugal to replace inefficient windows, install renewable heating or generate electricity for their own home.
Beskrivningen av den här finansieringen finns för närvarande på engelska.
The second phase offered up to three vouchers of €1,300 each, plus VAT at the applicable rate. The number awarded depended on the selected measures and validated supplier quotes. Households that had used a first-phase voucher could receive at most two additional vouchers; this two-voucher limit also applied when a different eligible electricity account holder applied for the same previously supported home. Expired first-phase vouchers did not transfer to phase two.
The vouchers paid participating suppliers for eligible equipment, labour and materials needed to install it. Fundo Ambiental paid the supplier directly. You paid any amount above your vouchers and any ineligible work directly to the supplier. The voucher was personal and could not be exchanged for cash. Each individual voucher was indivisible and stayed with one supplier; separate vouchers could be used with different suppliers. An unused balance could not be moved to another supplier, although eligible measures with the same qualified supplier could use the combined value.
Supported measures included replacing inefficient windows, renewable space heating, cooling or hot-water systems such as heat pumps, solar thermal systems and efficient biomass boilers or stoves, and new renewable electricity systems for consumption in the home. Battery storage was eligible when included in the system supply contract. Insulation was directed to separate support programmes.
Eligibility
These conditions governed the closed second-phase household intake:
- You had to live permanently in the supported home in mainland Portugal as its owner, tenant or holder of a right to use it (usufruct). Social housing and homes in Madeira or the Azores were excluded.
- The vulnerability route was eligibility for the social electricity tariff, as an electricity contract holder, or bottled-LPG purchase support under the notice. Alternatively, if you did not receive the social electricity tariff, someone in your household had to receive one of these benefits: solidarity supplement for older people (complemento solidário para idosos), social insertion income (rendimento social de inserção), social disability pension under the special disability protection scheme, supplement to the social inclusion benefit, social old-age pension, or social unemployment benefit. Losing the social electricity tariff after submission did not by itself end eligibility if all other requirements remained met.
- You could not have debts to the tax authority or social security. Tenants needed a valid lease registered with the tax authority, proof of permanent tax domicile and owner permission. Usufruct holders also needed tax-domicile proof and owner permission. An heir who was not the administrator of an undivided estate needed the relevant authorisation.
- Replacement windows needed individual CLASSE+ energy labels rated A or above. You could replace some windows rather than all of them. Exterior shutters or blinds could be funded only on the windows replaced under the programme. Entry doors, skylights, adding a second window while keeping the old one, and windows in spaces without permanent occupation or heating/cooling for comfort, such as garages or laundries, were excluded.
- Renewable heating and hot-water equipment needed energy class A or above, product documentation and the applicable conformity certificates. For combined systems, at least one function had to be rated A; the hot-water energy label had to show a demand profile of M or above. Solar thermal systems with electric resistance backup needed an accessible programmable timer. Fixed reversible air conditioning was limited to 12 kW and needed class A or above for both heating and cooling in average climate conditions; portable units were excluded. Work involving fluorinated refrigerant gases required a certified installer. Fossil-fuel equipment and replacing only components of an existing heating system were excluded. Solar thermal support in a block of flats required a home on the top or next-to-top floor and condominium permission.
- Electricity systems had to be new systems for consumption in the supported home, with sufficient sun exposure. Expanding or remodeling an existing system was excluded. Applicable notification or licensing with the Directorate-General for Energy and Geology (DGEG) had to be completed: no prior notification up to 700 W, prior notification between 700 W and 30 kW, and specific licensing above 30 kW.
- Costs already covered by other financing could not be funded again. Extensions and new buildings in their final construction stage requiring municipal licensing were excluded. Work in an existing part could qualify if it was outside the extension and you justified to the technical facilitator that it was not subject to that licensing.
How to apply
- Status
- inte tillgänglig
- Öppnar
- Stänger
- Villkor för ansökningsomgången
- Household beneficiary intake is closed. Supplier and technical-facilitator registration dates do not reopen household intake.
New household applications closed at 17:59 on 31 October 2024. Supplier and technical-facilitator deadlines were separate. The published rules set 31 July 2025 for implementation applications and 30 September 2025 as the voucher-use expiry. If you already applied, follow your case in the reserved area reached from Fundo Ambiental’s programme page and check the email address used in your application, including spam. If you applied yourself, clarification requests had to be answered in that reserved area within 10 working days; replies through other channels were not accepted. If a parish-council administrative facilitator submitted your application, that facilitator was responsible for replying to clarification requests.
Under the second-phase process, an eligible household signed an acceptance declaration within 10 calendar days of notification of the decision, unless a justified delay was outside the beneficiary’s control, and received an automatically assigned technical facilitator free of charge. This person selected suitable measures, collected supplier quotes and managed the implementation application. You had two working days to communicate your supplier choice; otherwise the facilitator’s proposal was automatically accepted. After award you could not choose to change the supplier or measure attached to a reserved voucher. However, the rules allowed reassignment to another supplier, with updated quotes, if work did not start within the supplier’s 90-day period after voucher reservation. The supplier could request one extension for evidenced stock shortages, labour shortages or other reasons outside its control. Any justified corrections to a supplier quote had to appear in the final platform proposal before formal award.
At completion you and the supplier signed a joint acceptance declaration. The technical facilitator checked completion and submitted the implementation application with itemised invoices, before-and-after photographs and the technical documents for each measure. Invoices had to be dated after voucher issuance and within six months of it. Remaining supplier payment followed assessment and an eligible implementation decision. Beneficiaries had to cooperate with inspections; non-compliance or incorrect use of funding could lead to recovery.
If an eligible beneficiary died, the application could continue only if the technical facilitator had already awarded the implementation work; otherwise it was cancelled.