© Adobe Stock / Konstantin Z

Helping companies quickly and effectively cut their energy bills

The ‘Energy Efficiency and Climate Action Networks Initiative’ shows how companies can successfully reduce their energy use. The updated ‘Federal funding scheme for energy and resource efficiency in business’ provides the financial support to match these ambitions.

Manufacturing companies consume 25% of Germany’s energy and as much as around 37% of Germany’s natural gas. But a great need for energy also offers great potential for energy savings. Leveraging this potential helps protect the climate and reduces costs in a time where energy prices are high.
The ‘Energy Efficiency and Climate Action Networks Initiative’ has published 60 new factsheets which cover the whole range of short, medium and long-term measures and set out specific steps for implementing these measures with practical examples for illustration. Funding for these measures is available under the updated ‘Federal funding scheme for energy and resource efficiency in business’, which has applied since this May, and which now also provides better and more extensive financial support for small companies.

Many of the factsheets have already been uploaded to the website of the ‘Energy Efficiency and Climate Action Networks Initiative’ (in German only), more will be added continuously over the next few weeks.

The factsheets focusing on people-oriented measures aim at raising awareness and encouraging employees to save energy. The technically oriented measures are to help optimise devices, installations and technical processes that use energy such as cooling and lighting systems. Low-cost measures, finally, include replacing an old heat pump, insulating heating pipes or fittings or replacing old lamps with LEDs.

Under the ‘Federal funding scheme for energy and resource efficiency in business initiative’, funding is available for cross-cutting technologies, measures for providing renewable process heat, investment in new measurement and control technology, measures for optimising the amount of energy and resources used by installations and processes and for transformation strategies.

The updated scheme of May 2023 now includes a sixth module under which small companies can apply for funding – without having to complete much paperwork – for phasing out gas, oil and coal and electrifying their manufacturing systems.

Up to 60% more funding in the funding competition

The support from the Federal funding scheme is available either as a grant (via the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA) or as a loan (via KfW). In the funding competition, funding decisions are made based on the criterion of funding efficiency, which puts the amount of funding applied for in relation to the expected reduction of carbon emissions.
The applications submitted compete for a budget of €40 million per round. The funding will be awarded to the applications that are found to be most cost efficient.

For more details on the ‘Federal funding scheme for energy and resource efficiency in business’ can be found here (in German only).