A new investment aid to encourage the construction and operation of solar photovoltaic power plants in Luxembourg is now available to companies.

This aid applies to the installation of power plants for the production of electricity from solar photovoltaic energy:

• on the outer shells of buildings, in economic activity areas (ZAE) or as shading devices; and
• intended primarily for own consumption of the electricity produced (not excluding the possibility of collective or shared self-consumption within an energy community).

Any surplus electricity can be sold on the market.

The aid is awarded following a call for projects. The call for projects is a competitive procedure: projects requesting the least amount of aid in relation to the installed capacity will be selected, within the limits of the available budget.

This call for projects is limited to a maximum budget of EUR 20 million and will run from 15 July 2023 to 31 October 2023.

Applications for investment aid must be submitted via the MyGuichet.lu platform and the relevant specifications can be consulted here. An FAQ is also available.

Who is concerned

This aid is aimed at all legal persons (SA, SARL, cooperatives) who:

• are established in Luxembourg;
• are engaged in an economic activity as their main occupation;
• invest in solar photovoltaic power plants; and
  
• meet the general conditions that apply in this matter.

Luxinnovation is the preferred contact point for businesses, and assists them in their administrative procedures. Luxinnovation can be contacted at the following email address: aides@luxinnovation.lu.

Deadlines

The first consumption of electricity produced by the plant must take place within 18 months after the aid is granted. If this time limit cannot be met for duly justified reasons beyond the company's control, more time may be granted upon written request to the ministers.

The call for projects with a maximum budget of EUR 20 million, divided into 4 lots, will run from 15 July 2023 until 31 October 2023.

How to proceed

Allowable costs

Investments related to the installation of the plant.

Operating costs and costs involved in complying with legal, regulatory or administrative requirements in force are not eligible.

The allowable costs do not include taxes or other deductions. The list of allowable costs is set out below:

• purchase and installation of electrical equipment (photovoltaic modules, inverters, junction boxes, cabling, etc.);
• purchase of the structural elements supporting the modules;
• engineering and development costs;
• setting up the connection (connection costs, transformer, civil engineering works);
• storage (with a capacity of no more than 1 kWh per 1 kWp of the plant).

Competition and project selection

For each lot, tenders received within the deadline and not eliminated under the provisions set out in the tender specifications are ranked:

• by reference aid amount A_r (specified in the application form), the lowest amount of aid per installed capacity (EUR/kWp);
• in case of equal reference aid amounts, by ascending power output;
• in case of equal reference aid amount and power output, by a lottery between the ex-aequo application files.

For each lot, tenders are selected in ascending order of the ranking established by the method described above, until the last tender chosen allows to exactly reach the maximum amount of aid for the lot under consideration. If the maximum amount of aid is exceeded for the lot concerned, the last eligible tender that led to the maximum amount being exceeded is removed and the award process is stopped.

In case of under-subscription of lot(s), a competitiveness clause is provided for, as well as a transfer of unallocated amounts. The competitiveness clause implies that no more than 90 % of the admissible projects presented in the context of the call for projects may be selected. If the number of projects submitted is less than 10, at least 1 project will be rejected.

Filing an application

The application for aid must be filed using an online assistant on MyGuichet.lu (see ‘Forms / Online Services’).

The person filing the application (the applicants themselves or their representatives) must have a LuxTrust product (e.g. Token, Smartcard or Signing Stick) or an electronic identity card (eID).

The application must be filed before the commencement of the work.

How to create a business eSpace on MyGuichet.lu

Two scenarios are possible:

• The person submitting the application is a new user on MyGuichet.lu and does not yet have an eSpace: The eSpace is set up in 2 steps:
  1. registration of a user;
  2. creation of a business eSpace.
     

A tutorial in the form of a video or a PDF document is available to guide you.

• The person filing the application is a MyGuichet.lu user and already has a private eSpace: they will have to set up a new business eSpace.

A tutorial in the form of a video or a PDF document is available to guide you.

You can consult the help section on MyGuichet.lu.

Supporting documents

Applications for aid must include the following information and documents:

• an organisation chart allowing for the identification of the company and the group (single economic entity) to which the company belongs, forms providing information on the size of the company and possibly the company's statutes;
  
• the official annual accounts of the applicant company and related companies (or consolidated group accounts);
  
• a bank account identification document;
  
• a CCSS certificate stating the number of employees;
  
• a certificate of right of use of the installation site;
  
• a project description and simplified business plan (excel template provided) ;
  
• a quote or offer, if available, otherwise a cost estimate.

Where appropriate, the ministries reserve the right to request information on the contractual relations between the parties involved in order to ascertain the need for the aid.

Maximum amount of financial aid

No group (single economic entity) may receive aid for one or more projects in an amount exceeding 40 % of the budget per lot.

Forms / Online services

Who to contact