Germany extends natural refrigerant subsidies until 2021

January 25, 2019

Germany has extended its subsidy scheme for natural refrigerant-based refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment until 2021.

The German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety (BMU) has announced it will continue to subsidise refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment based on non-halogenated refrigerants (commonly known as natural refrigerants) until 31 December 2021.

This is an extension of the previous subsidy scheme, which sought to reduce the energy consumption of refrigeration and air-conditioning systems alongside subsidising natural refrigerant-based systems. It ran from 1 January 2017 until 1 January 2019.

As with the previous iteration, the new programme is open to companies, not-for-profits, local authorities, special purpose associations, and schools, hospitals and church organisations (regardless of the intention to make a profit).

The scheme particularly focuses on increasing the uptake of natural refrigerant systems in stationary refrigeration applications (renovated and new builds) and air conditioners in vehicles such as in buses and trains. Trains can also be retrofitted with natural refrigerant air-conditioning systems, but not buses.

Much like the 2017-2019 scheme, the funding an end user receives depends on the type of installation and the cooling capacity, as well as other requirements. The German Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA), which is implementing the project, provides more information on calculating the funding on its website.

Each end user is entitled to receive a maximum of 150,000 euros per installation.