Investment aid for the protection of the environment

Large businesses

Self-employed

SMEs

Businesses that invest in eco-technology or environmentally friendly processes may be eligible for specific financial aid.

Aid is granted in the form of a capital grant or interest relief.

Who is concerned

Businesses concerned

The financial aid is available to any business or natural person holding a business permit.

Eligible costs

An applicant's guide (guide du requérant) is available to help businesses fill in their application.

The financial support scheme provides for several types of investment (schemes) which may be eligible for public financial aid:

investments enabling businesses to exceed EU environmental protection standards or to increase the level of environmental protection despite the absence of such standards;
early adaptation to future EU standards;
investments in energy efficiency measures;
investments in high-efficiency cogeneration;
investments in the production of energy from renewable energy sources;
investments in the remediation of contaminated sites;
investments in the district heating or cooling distribution network;
investments in the recycling or re-use of waste;
investments in energy infrastructures;
aid for environmental studies.

Prerequisites

All businesses which meet the general conditions that apply to State aid are entitled to this type of aid.

How to proceed

Filing an application

The application for investment aid for the protection of the environment is to be submitted using the online assistant available on MyGuichet.lu.

The person submitting 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.

The application must be submitted 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 creation of the eSpace is done in 2 steps:
1. registration of a user;
2. creation of a business eSpace.
A tutorial in video or PDF format is available to guide you.
The person submitting the application is a user of MyGuichet.lu and already has a private eSpace: they will have to create a new business eSpace.
A tutorial in video or PDF format is available to guide you.

Consult the help section on MyGuichet.lu.

Before work starts means before:

the beginning of construction works in relation with the investment;
the first legally binding order of equipment or any other commitment making the investment irreversible.

The purchase of land and the preparatory work such as applying for and receiving authorisations and carrying out feasibility studies are not considered as a commencement of works.

In the case of a repurchase of assets, the commencement of works is the moment the assets which are directly related to the acquired establishment are purchased.

Maximum amount of financial aid

The amount of aid varies between 10 % to 100 % of the investments, depending on the type of project and the type of business applying for aid.

The table below summarises the maximum amount of aid that may be granted under all aid schemes, expressed as a percentage of eligible costs. Each line represents a specific aid scheme or measure.

Degree of aid depending on the type of scheme

		Small business	Medium business	Large business
Investment aid allowing businesses to go beyond the EU standards on environmental protection or to increase the level of environmental protection in the absence of EU standards		60 %	50 %	40 %
Investment aid for early adaptation to future EU standards more than 3 years prior to the entry into force of standards between 1 and 3 years prior to the entry into force of standards		20 % 15 %	15 % 10 %	10 % 5 %
Investment aid for energy efficiency measures		50 %	40 %	30 %
Investment aid for high-efficiency cogeneration		65 %	55 %	45 %
Investment aid for the production of energy from renewable energy sources
	a) Identifiable separate investment or investment as a deduction from a counterfactual reference	65 %	55 %	45 %
	b) Investment in certain smaller installations (without deduction from a counterfactual reference)	50 %	40 %	30 %
Investment aid for the remediation of contaminated sites		100 %	100 %	100 %
Investment aid for the district heating or cooling distribution network
a) Production plant		65 %	55 %	45 %
b) Distribution network		cannot exceed the difference between the eligible costs and the operating profit over the relevant lifetime of the investment
Investment aid for the recycling or re-use of waste		55 % compliance with the principle of waste hierarchy	45 % compliance with the principle of waste hierarchy	35 % compliance with the principle of waste hierarchy
Investment aid for energy infrastructures		aid which does not exceed the difference between the allowable costs and the operating margin of the investment
Aid for environmental studies		70 %	60 %	50 %

Payment of the aid

The capital subsidy and repayable advance are paid out after the completion of the project, programme or activity.

However, one or more advance payments may be made as the investments are made.

The application for payment of the aid is to be submitted using the online assistant available on MyGuichet.lu. This can be done in 2 different ways:

in a detailed manner, where each individual cost is reported: to be used if there are 10 invoices or less to be declared; or
in a summarised manner, where the total per type of cost is reported: to be used if there are more than 10 invoices to be declared.

Details of the documents to be provided depending on the cost statement templates are available under "Pièces à joindre à la démarche en ligne MyGuichet.lu de demande de paiement".

The person submitting the payment 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).