How much is the subsidy rate? 

The support rate is determined on the basis of the nature of the eligible ecological investments (scope of application), the eco class, and the size of the enterprise on the date the support application is submitted.
The support rate for a GREEN project is shown in the table below:
 

The support rate is applied to the ecological additional cost and results in the amount of support.

The total support amounts to a maximum of EUR 1 million per enterprise over a period of three years. This period starts from the first approved support application.

An enterprise may include several investments in one support application. An enterprise may also submit several support applications. If you submit several projects together, the same start date applies to all investments.

The eco class is determined by cost-effectiveness.

Projects that achieve high cost-effectiveness (CE) (high environmental benefits per euro invested, (CE ≥ 1.5) are classed as eco-class A. 

** Projects that achieve lower (but still sufficient) cost effectiveness (CE < 1.5 but > 0) are classed as eco-class B. 

The eco-class classification is part of the assessment. This calculation is based on the ReCiPe Endpoint method based on an LCIA (Life Cycle Impact Analysis). 

What costs are accepted?

The total project cost to realise your investment must be a minimum of 50,000 euros to be eligible. Not all costs will be accepted.

Project costs

A project must be sufficiently large to qualify for the GREEN call. This is determined based on the project cost. This includes all costs required to implement the project. The combined costs for engineering, investment, installation, preliminary study, operational costs and infrastructure costs must amount to at least €50,000. 

For most projects, it is sufficient to estimate only the accepted costs. Projects that do not reach the investment threshold on the basis of the accepted costs alone must also estimate the other components of the project costs.

Accepted costs

Only invoiced third-party costs are accepted. Third parties are enterprises that are less than 25% related to the applicant (i.e. neither partner enterprises nor linked enterprises according to the EU definition).
As illustrated in Figure 1, the accepted costs include the following components:

• engineering costs: calculations and dimensioning of the selected technology
• investment costs: the actual cost of the technology
• installation costs: the costs of installing the technology

The investments must be depreciated in accordance with accounting legislation and over a period of at least 3 years.

Non-eligible costs

As illustrated in Figure 1, the non-accepted costs comprise the following components:

• preliminary study costs: analysis of the technical and/or economic feasibility of possible technologies, environmental impact, etc. Costs for applying for permits, mandatory inspections, subsidies, etc. are also not accepted
• infrastructure works: costs for constructing buildings, foundations, sewage systems, roads, other civil engineering works, a new high-/medium-/low-voltage cabin including cabling, etc.
• internal costs of the applicant (staff costs, overhead and operating costs)
• operating costs: the consumption costs of the new investment/device (for example electricity, chemicals, etc.)

The costs of dismantling the old installation and adaptations to existing heat or water pipes are not eligible for support. New pipes are accepted as costs up to the distribution network (the distribution network itself is not accepted as a cost).

The ecological additional cost

The ecological additional cost is the cost of the additional investment (excluding VAT) necessary to achieve the environmental objectives.

The additional investment is calculated by comparing the ecology investment with a conventional investment that is technically similar but does not allow for achieving the same level of environmental protection (= the standard investment). The comparison is based on equal production capacity. Furthermore, the savings and/or revenues during the first five years (updated to the European reference rate) of the useful life are deducted from the incremental cost.