Subsidies for green, renewable or reduced energy consumption
With energy prices on the rise, you may be thinking about reducing your energy consumption or switching to renewable energy sources as part of a home renovation project. In which case, you might be entitled to a grant or subsidy from the state.
State aid and technical installation subsidies previously under the banner of PRIMe House have now been wrapped into one state subsidy Klimabonus. You can also get additional aid from your commune and even some energy suppliers (we cover this later in the article).
Eurostat figures show that 11.7% of Luxembourg’s energy came from renewable sources in 2020. The government want to increase this to 25% by 2030.
State subsidies for energy or heating cover the following systems:
- Solar thermal – using solar panels to heat up water for your home
- Solar photovoltaic – using solar panels to generate electricity for your home or the grid
- Heat pumps – an energy efficient alternative to a boiler or air conditioner, moving air from outside to heat your home, and vice versa to cool it in the warmer months
- Wood-fuelled boilers and stoves – biomass boilers or stoves that use renewable energy such as wood chips or pellets to heat your home
- Implementation or connection to a heat network – if you generate energy, you can give excess to the energy grid and receive payment, and get a subsidy on this connection to the network.
- Attic floor and roof insulation.
Subsidies are granted once per installation and are only available for residential properties in Luxembourg.
Who can apply and how to get professional advice
Any property owner can apply for financial aid, and if you live in a block of flats, you can apply jointly, although any installation must be new, and not the replacement of part of an existing system.
If you want to find out how you can make your home more energy efficient, you can get the advice of a Klima consultant who will visit your home and make energy efficiency suggestions. The wait time for appointments is approximately one month but you'll be able to recoup 50% of the cost of the consultation.
What state subsidies can you expect
We've listed the current subsidies below, but families on a low income could get a 100% top up to the subsidy. Once passed into law, the subsidies will apply retroactively from the beginning of 2022 with plans in place to accept invoices up to the end 2031.
Our run-down gives the main types of installations, but you can take a look at all of those covered in more detail here.
The following subsidies are for a house, so rates per apartment or block of flats will vary.
For solar hot water and solar heating the subsidy is 50% up to a maximum of €2,500 and €4,000 respectively.
For a heat pump, you’ll get 50% off the cost if it is geothermal, up to a maximum of €12,000. For air-to-water heat pumps the subsidy is also 50% up to a maximum of €8,500.
For wood-fuelled log boilers the subsidy is 50% of the cost up to €3,500, and for a wood pellet boilers 50% up to €7,500. A log or pellet stove gets a 30% subsidy up to €2,500, whilst retrofit wood heating gets 50% up to a maximum of €1,500. Removal of an oil tank gets a subsidy of 50% up to €2,000.
For setting up a heating network and connection to district heating the maximum subisides are €12,500 and €3,750 respectively.
There are also subsidies for attic floor and roof insulation.
Installation standards
You can find a full list of requirements when you search on the Klima Agence website. Broadly speaking the following standards must be met:
Hydraulic balancing must be performed – for installation of a heat pump, a wood-fuelled boiler, or a solar thermal system with auxiliary heating in a new house.
Solar thermal systems must be certified by the European Solar Keymark quality mark and installed with a calorimeter. The gross surface area of the solar collectors must be at least 9sqm if flat plane or 7sqm for vacuum tube collectors. Non-glass thermal ones with polyethylene pipes and hybrid solar collectors or panels (for generating hot water and electricity) are not eligible for financial aid.
Solar photovoltaic systems – must have a peak power capacity of less than 30kW, and the installation must be mounted on the roof or façade of the building. However hybrid solar collectors generating hot water and electricity are eligible as photovoltaic collectors.
Heat pumps – geothermal heat pumps with vertical or horizontal sensors, heat pumps combined with latent heat accumulators or solar thermal collectors, direct expansion geothermal heat pumps, and air-water heat pumps are all eligible providing they are compliant with certain coefficients of performance.
Any heating system must supply the heating circuit with a maximum starting temperature of 35°C or reach a certain threshold, and the power supply of the heat pump must be equipped with an electricity meter.
Wood-fuelled boilers – any installation must have controlled combustion, and wood pellet or chip-fed boilers must have an automatic feeder and ignition system. Wood pellet stoves must be integrated in a central heating system with a useful heat transfer or at least 50%. Staged log combustion boilers and combination log-pellet boilers must have a buffer tank, and certain emission thresholds.
Heating networks and connections – the rate of coverage of renewable energy sources must be at least 75% (certified by a heating network operator).
Klima calculator for commune & supplier subsidies
Some communes grant additional or supplementary aid on top of that given by the state for energy savings or renewable energies. Gas and electricity suppliers also have energy efficiency aid programmes.
In Luxembourg City, subsidies promoting sustainability include an additional 50% of the amount allocated by Klimabonus (the state), for installations that improve or promote energy efficiency, sustainability, electric mobility and adaptation to climate change. This includes the purchase or repair of household appliances, installation of heat pumps, recovery of rainwater, the creation of an electric charging station or installation of a roof garden. You can find more information here.
Klima Agence has set up a calculator to show you what subsidies you'll qualify for from the state, your commune and any supplier aid for a specific energy installation or upgrade. The calculator will also suggest potential packages of installations that you can put together such as solar panels and a heat pump.
More information
You can get more information on subsidies for renewable energy, mobility and housing renovation here.
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