Acció Climàtica expands by 15 million euros the budget of the aid line for the energy rehabilitation of buildings in municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants.

The Department of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda, through the Catalan Energy Institute (ICAEN), has extended by 15 million euros the line of aid intended for the energy rehabilitation of buildings in municipalities of less than 5,000 inhabitants. In this way, it will be possible to cover all the requests that had been received so far - and which already exceeded the available budget - and new ones can be attended to. The line, which is endowed with resources from the European Next Generation funds, aims to advance the energy transition by optimizing energy consumption in buildings and, at the same time, contribute to responding to the demographic challenge posed by the Rural agenda. At the same time, the deadline for submitting applications has also been extended until July 31.

With this third extension, the total allocation of the line will amount to 45 million euros. The initial budget of the program, effective from February 2022, was 5.5 million euros. So far, ICAEN has received 637 requests for an amount of 37.8 million euros.

The line subsidizes actions related both to the energy improvement of the building envelope (façades, roof or floor) and to the improvement of energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy in its thermal installations, such as heating, air conditioning, refrigeration, ventilation and sanitary hot water. It can accommodate single-family homes, buildings of the collective residential typology of housing or buildings for any other use that are located in municipalities of up to 5,000 inhabitants and non-urban municipalities of up to 20,000 inhabitants in which all their unique population entities are up to 5,000 inhabitants.

The requirements to access this program are that the building is from before 2007, that the action involves the improvement of one letter in the building's energy certification (in the CO₂ emissions rating), and that it generates a minimum saving of 30% of non-renewable primary energy consumption. The call excludes new work, extensions (both in terms of surface area and volume) and changes of use.

Applications can be made by all natural or legal persons who own existing buildings; communities of owners of buildings for residential use; operating companies, lessees or concessionaires of buildings; energy service companies; the town councils, councils or other equivalent corporations; and renewable energy communities and citizen energy communities.

This line of aid for the energy rehabilitation of buildings aligns with the transition process towards a new, cleaner, sustainable, fair and democratic energy model that Catalonia has started. The goal is to achieve a decarbonized society and economy by 2050, with an energy model based on energy efficiency and renewable energies, and where citizens can generate and manage their own energy and participate in decision-making .