The program benefits cogeneration and waste treatment plants that replace fossil fuels with renewables with incentives that will provide the industry with a viable and affordable energy supply alternative, reducing costs and emissions, and contributing to improving its competitiveness.
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Ecological Transition
The Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge is launching a new line of incentives for electricity and/or heat production projects using renewable energies to replace fossil fuel production (natural gas, fuel oil and diesel), published today in the Official State Gazette (BOE) and available here. The program, RENOCOGEN, is endowed with 150 million euros of NextGeneration EU funds channelled through the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, and is aimed at owners of cogeneration and waste treatment plants that replace fossil sources with renewables.
This initiative, aligned with the +SE Plan for strategic and energy autonomy, provides the industry with a viable and affordable alternative energy supply -electrical and thermal-, making it possible to reduce costs and energy dependence, thus improving the competitiveness of companies.
The line of aid is part of component 7 “Deployment and integration of renewable energies” of the Recovery Plan and contributes to meeting the general objective of installing at least 3,800 MW of renewable generation by the first half of 2026. In addition, the boost to renewable electricity and thermal production will lead to lower energy dependence on fossil fuels, will bring socioeconomic benefits for local communities in terms of employment and industrial fabric, and saving in CO2 emissions which, in the case of the RENOCOGEN program, is estimated at some 700,000 tons per year.
On the other hand, since the subsidies will be conditioned to the beneficiary’s waiver of the specific retributive regime regulated by Royal Decree 413/2014 of a cogeneration or waste treatment plant of which it has to be the owner, it also contributes to reducing the costs charged to the electricity system by reducing the electricity production with those cogeneration or waste treatment plants that choose to take advantage of the program.
Eligible projects
The Instituto para la Diversificación y Ahorro de la Energía (IDAE), attached to the Secretary of State for Energy, will be in charge of managing these new aids, which will be granted on a non-refundable basis and on a competitive basis. The 150 million allocated are expected to subsidize around thirty projects that will involve the installation of some 530 MW of thermal and electric power, with an associated investment of around 231 million Euros.
Those initiatives of plants for the production of electric and/or thermal energy from renewable energies, individually or with combinations of several installations contemplated in the following list, will be eligible for subsidies:
Installations for the production of electrical energy or cogeneration.
Installations for the production of electrical energy or cogeneration from biomass.
Installations for the production of electrical energy or cogeneration from biogas
Installations for the production of electricity from wind energy with electrical storage
Hydroelectric power plants with electrical storage
Solar photovoltaic plants with electrical storage
Thermal energy production plants
Thermal energy production plants using biomass
Thermal power generation plants using biogas
Geothermal or hydrothermal thermal power plants
Installations for the production of thermal energy from exothermic
Installations for thermal energy production from solar energy with thermal storage
Companies and the public sector
The maximum aid per project is 15 million, with a minimum investment threshold of 50,000 euros. Applicants may be companies (small, medium and large companies) or business groups, and the public sector. Among other award criteria, the remaining time of the cogeneration system of which the beneficiary is the owner will be weighted in order to favour those projects that will result in greater savings in emissions, as well as greater economic savings for the consumers as a whole.
Likewise, priority will be given to those initiatives that seek to optimize the use of the energy generated, according to the mode of use of the production (storage, full self-consumption, thermal production) and the replacement of the existing plant with primary energy savings.
And, in line with the general objectives of the Recovery Plan, positive externalities such as the participation of SMEs, the positive impact on areas of Just Transition and Demographic Challenge, the reduction of emissions, job creation and gender equality will be taken into account. The selected projects must respect the principle of not causing significant harm to the environment. The facilities must be fully completed by January 31, 2026.
The characteristics of the call are available on the IDAE website and the deadline for receipt of applications will remain open from July 12 until 14:00 hours on September 15. Specific queries about the regulatory bases of this program can be sent to the following e-mail address: solicitudes.renocogen@idae.es.
Also, all interested parties can learn more details about this line of aid in the technical webinar organized by the IDAE next Wednesday, July 12 at 12:00h.