Scaling up the rollout of renewable energy technologies to advance the energy transition requires financial support. While several renewables like solar heat come with higher upfront investment costs than fossil-fuel based solutions, they have the advantage of providing cleaner, safer and cheaper energy in the long term.
Across EU Member States, there are several great examples of financial incentives for installing solar thermal applications:
France: MaPrimeRénov’ & Fonds Chaleur
MaPrimeRénov‘ is public funding available to all homeowners and co-ownerships of dwellings built at least 15 years ago in mainland France. The work covered includes the installation of a modern heating system or water heater that uses solar thermal energy. For work on heating and domestic hot water, the lump-sum grant can be as much as €11,000 for very low-income households.
The aim of the Fonds Chaleur is to support companies and local authorities in their heat and cooling production projects by offering support, financing for the cost of the installation, feasibility studies and advice such as their hierarchy of measures for planning a new installation. The fund makes it possible to finance the replacement of installations that use fossil fuels with renewable heat and cooling production equipment, using solar thermal energy in particular. Investment aid takes the form of grants of up to 45% of the investment for solar thermal systems.
Austria: Solarbonus
Another great example of financial support to choosing solar thermal is the Solarbonus from Austria. Citizens who decide to replace their fossil fuel boiler with a renewable heating system or who update their already existing renewable heating system with a new and more efficient one receive several thousand euros of funding if as part of this switch they also install a solar thermal system in their own four walls. To be eligible for the funding scheme, the solar thermal collectors need to be certified with the Solar Keymark. More information can be found on Austria Solar’s website.
Affordable clean energy for everyone: The role of financial instruments
The affordability of clean and renewable solutions is key to ensuring that the mandatory heating and cooling transition to renewables is accessible for everyone. Renewable heat solutions have a better Levelised Cost of Heat (LCoH) and better lifecycle costs than fossil-fuel based solutions. Every solar thermal system comes with only a one-time installation cost, which also includes efficient heat storage as a standard, after which it provides an affordable energy supply for over 20 years harnessed from the sun’s free energy. To meet this high upfront investment cost, citizens and industry players need to be financially supported in their effort to decarbonise.
Our policy demand:
To help European citizens, cities and industry players access the relevant renewable energy technologies for the energy transition, such as solar heat, it is crucial that public authorities set up European financial instruments that facilitate an easy access to funding. Furthermore, Solar Heat Europe calls on European policymakers to implement carbon-pricing mechanisms that reflect adequately negative externalities of fossil fuels consumption across the European economy and adjust their prices while protecting the competitiveness of the European industry by encouraging a switch to renewables instead.