Riga, February 10, 2022 – The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development (VARAM) has prepared the draft of the Cabinet of Ministers’ regulations “Regulations of the open competition “Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in households – support for the use of renewable energy resources” of the project financed by the emission allowance auction instrument”, which has been sent for coordination by the involved ministries.
As previously reported, the government has agreed on a broad support package for citizens and companies to reduce the prices of adult energy resources and compensate them. One of the solutions is a much wider use of renewable energy equipment for energy production for self-consumption in households.
The support program developed by VARAM provides support for the replacement of fossil fuel (natural gas) equipment with new equipment using renewable energy resources (biomass pellet boilers, heat pumps, solar collectors) or connection to a centralized heat supply system, as well as for the production of electricity from renewable energy resources (solar panels, wind generators). for household self-consumption.
VARAM has developed the regulations for the open project application competition of the support program. The purpose of the competition is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in households by supporting the purchase of heat energy or electricity production equipment for installation in residential houses to ensure the production and supply of heat energy or electricity for household needs, or the establishment of household connections to the centralized heat supply system.
Support will be provided to residents who have ownership rights to a residential house, i.e. one-apartment house, garden house, individual residential house and summer house, two-apartment house, as well as semi-detached, terraced and separate two-apartment house, in order to implement the planned activities there. VARAM has included conditions for beneficiaries as well as residential houses in the support program.
One project application can be submitted for one residential house. The total funding available within the support program is 20,000,000 euros. Within the framework of the competition, the maximum support available for one project is up to 20,000 euros. The Ministry has foreseen that the support within the tender is provided in the form of a grant – a one-time payment – after the purchase and installation of the equipment. It is expected that the maximum aid intensity will not exceed 70% of the cost of purchasing heat or electricity production equipment, not exceeding the cost rate of a certain unit (equipment) depending on a specific renewable energy equipment and its parameters.
The developed version of the tender regulation provides that households will be able to receive support for replacing existing natural gas heating boilers with new thermal energy production equipment: for the purchase of wood biomass boilers, suitable for pellet fuel, with a total installed capacity of up to 50 kW (inclusive); purchase of solar collector systems with storage tank volume up to 400 l (inclusive); for the purchase of heat pumps (air, water, earth) with a total installed capacity of up to 50 kW (inclusive). At the same time, support is provided for the purchase of new electricity generation equipment: solar panels with a total installed capacity of up to 11.1 kW (inclusive) with and without connection to the common electricity supply network and a wind generator with a total installed capacity of up to 11.1 kW (inclusive) with and without connection for the common power supply network.
Support will also be provided for the creation of a centralized heat supply system for household connection, if the use of fossil energy equipment is abandoned. The rules of the competition provide that the residents purchase the mentioned equipment from merchants, as well as the installation and connection are performed by merchants registered in the Register of Enterprises of the Republic of Latvia.
The state limited liability company “Environmental Investment Fund” will accept and evaluate project submissions, as well as make decisions on granting or refusing funding. The tender will be announced within 10 working days after the entry into force of these regulations.
Source: https://www.varam.gov.lv/