Renewable energy financing mechanism technology specific

In line with section 3 of the call text, the mechanism aims to provide investment support relating to the installation of additional units of renewable energy (MW). Regulation (EU) 2020/1294 defines ‘additional unit’ as a defined amount of generating capacity (..) that can be attributed to the sole implementation of support provided by the mechanism.

Applicants can advance with all preparatory steps of their project up to the final investment decision. But the FID should not be taken before the submission of the grant application, otherwise the additionality can no longer be demonstrated. This is without prejudice to Article 196 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2024/2509 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union.

First of all, projects need to clearly be able to show and demonstrate their boundaries and scope with other co-located projects. Secondly, projects need to demonstrate that the electricity produced by the project can be attributed to the funded project. Therefore, a separate metering system is required for each funded project.

Finally, projects need to demonstrate that there is no technical possibility to transfer the electricity from other non-funded projects to the metering of the funded project. Therefore, the RENEWFM programme can finance additional units of an existing project or a project that is located in the same land plot as other non-funded projects only if the above conditions are demonstrated at the application phase and respected during the whole implementation period.

Yes, if at the time of the call opening a land corresponds to the definition of forest provided in the call, the change of use of the land from forest to agriculture does not entail an exemption from the deforestation avoidance requirements.

The Call for proposals document sets a fixed expected full load hours amount per country. Proposals expected not to meet this requirement will not be selected for funding.

It is up to the applicant to decide the structure of the proposal. If it is already known that the project will be carried out by an SPV and the latter is already set up, we encourage to include the SPV in the application. It is also encouraged to include the mother company in the consortium, in case the SPV is a newly created structure.

No, any eligible entity can apply. The specific eligibility criteria are set out in section 6 of the call document. There are no restrictions based on the country of origin of the applicants. Proposals must relate to activities taking place in the eligible host Member States.

No, the hydrogen produced in a project supported by the RENEWFM cannot qualify as green hydrogen according to the RFNBO Delegated act (https://energy.ec.europa.eu/publications/delegated-regulation-union-methodology-rfnbos_en). Indeed, according to the latter, the support received by an installation that generates renewable electricity, constitutes ‘investment aid’ in accordance with Article 5(b) of Commission Delegated Regulation of 10.02.2023 on the rules for the production of renewable liquid and gaseous transport fuels of non-biological origin.

A hybrid project is a single project that combines two or more renewable energy technologies. Hybrid projects are eligible provided that they respect all the following conditions:

• The project submitted under the call is only about the eligible technology. All technical and energy production parameters refer to the eligible technology only.
• The projects should ensure a setup capable of accurately identifying and certifying energy production from the eligible technology. To achieve this, the hybrid asset developer/operator would need to install a separate metering device in compliance with the requirements set by the competent authority (DSO, TSO) and ensure the transmission of data for accounting purposes. This set up shall be carefully described in the submitted application form.

If one promoter has more than one project to apply for, each project will have to be submitted through a separate application. For the definition of “single project” please refer to topic Q&A 30447.

In case of voluntary re-dispatching, the participation of the RES installation is done on a voluntary basis. The plant operator should make a trade-off between obtaining the support from the RENEWFM or obtaining the revenues from the ancillary services market.

In case of mandatory re-dispatching, the intended volume shall still count towards the grant as the curtailment is independent of the will of the operator. When submitting deliverables for continuous reporting or at the time of the reporting and payment, plant operators need to demonstrate that they had the capability to run full load hours during the curtailment (e.g. provide a proof of bidding into the wholesale market for those hours and the received instruction from the grid operator – DSO or TSO - not to run).

There are no predefined maximum lump-sum amounts per se under RENEWFM. The maximum amount which can be awarded to a project depends on the defined maximum capacity per project and the ceiling price determined in the call.

As the support from the RENEWFM constitutes a lump-sum payment, the concept of co-funding rate does not apply. The lump sum is a fixed sum that is disbursed against the achievement of specific outputs and results. Applicants should however be attentive to restrictions of double funding, meaning that EU funds cannot finance costs which are already covered by another EU or national funding programme.

The ceiling price is the maximum support applicants can request for MW installed. It is not the investment cost per MW. The latter should be reported in the project business plan.

The bid price is calculated based on the fixed FLH. This is to avoid projects speculating on FLH. At project level, applicants might estimate more FLH this can be explained in the proposal. However, the budget is calculated on the basis of the fixed FLH.

Any situation constituting force majeure must be formally notified to the Granting Authority without delay, stating the nature, likely duration and foreseeable effects. The parties must immediately take all the necessary steps to limit any damage due to force majeure and do their best to resume implementation of the action as soon as possible.

After grant agreement signature, limited extensions are possible, through amendment, if duly justified and not abusive.

Please note that we reserve the right to refuse requests for extensions that we consider as going against the call objectives or being not justified or abusive, such as, for instance, requests that are not in line with the Grant Agreement provisions (see article 32) or that are linked to a delayed final investment decision due to market conditions.

If the bank is among the co-financers, the bank can sign the co-financing declaration. Any parties co-financing the project can sign the declaration.

The RENEWFM contributions are distributed in the form of grant payments to project developers for investment support, under this call. This is one of the forms of support available, pursuant to Article 17 of the RENEWFM Implementing Regulation.

The list of previous projects is important to establish the operational capacity of project developer. This list enables CINEA to assess the competence and the experience of the applicants.

Applicants will have to show their operational capacity via the following information:

• general profiles (qualifications and experiences) of the staff responsible for managing and implementing the project
• description of the consortium participants (if applicable)
• applicants’ activity reports of last year
• list of previous projects:
• List of previous RES projects (key projects for the last 10 years, if available);
• List of previous projects concerning the same RES technology of the submitted proposal (key projects for the last 5 years, if available)

Insufficient experience in projects of comparable size may not lead to automatic exclusion. Previous experience in RES projects having a lower capacity than the ones requested by the call may be taken into account. Additional supporting documents may be requested, if needed, to confirm applicants’ operational capacity.

As a general rule, the list of previous project refers to the list of previous projects carried out by the applicant. If the applicant wishes to complement this list with the list of previous projects from the chosen Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) contractor, it can do so, if it is demonstrated that the EPC has been chosen (e.g. the contract has been signed). It is to be noted that the applicant will anyhow need to demonstrate that it has the capacity to carry out the project, including supervising the EPC contractor and managing the contract.

There is no standardized definition in the EU of Agri PV. In the text from the call document, it is indeed made reference to the coexistence of the two activities, energy production and agricultural use. Both activities have to be carried out at the same time. There can be various technical solutions / typologies of solar panel that would guarantee this very basic principle. The specific technical solutions might be different depending on the specific project conditions, both with regards to the technical requirements of the RES production and the type of agricultural land the project will be located on. It is up to each project to explain the technical set up in the Application form part B section 1.2 and explain how the principle is safeguarded so that it can qualify as agri-PV. The condition of agri-PV must be respected during the whole duration of the grant agreement.

By agricultural land in production, we mean the total area taken up by arable land, permanent grassland (pastureland), permanent crops and kitchen gardens farmed, regardless of the type of tenure. Peatland is not considered agricultural land. We consider agricultural area not in use/not in production land previously used for an agricultural purpose which is no longer worked since 1 January 2025, and which is not used in the crop rotation system. To be noted that actual use of the land prevails over any definition in the master plan. In the definition above we are aligned with the Eurostat definition of utilized agricultural land / unutilised agricultural land.

No, this is not possible. No compensation clauses are defined in the call text.

Guarantees of origin are regulated by the provision in place in the Member State where the Renewable Energy is produced. They are not allocated to the Contributing Country.

The bid should specify Mwpeak/MWdc capacity of the plant.

The mechanism foresees in principle one call per year, provided that the phase of Expression of Interest of contributing and hosting Member States is successful. The call can be technology specific, e.g., on solar PV or any other RES technology, or multi-technology. The call elements are decided following each expression of interest phase and the agreement between hosting and contributing countries; therefore, it is not possible to anticipate yet if there will be other calls focus on solar PV.

In general, projects are expected to be connected to the grid. Therefore, among the mandatory documents it is requested also the proof of the application to the grid connection.

If projects are foreseen to be off-grid or partially off-grid because the electricity produced would be either stored into batteries or directly used (e.g. in an electrolysers), instead of the proof of the application to the grid connection, projects are expected to submit a declaration or another document which proves that the RES plant will not be connected to the grid, but directly to Power-to-X facility or own use or similar.

Information on the projects supported so far is available in the EU funding and Tenders Portal, under projects and results: EU Funded projects | EU Funding & Tenders Portal (europa.eu).

The installed capacity is defined by the applicant. As stated in the call document (section 2), the minimum capacity per project is set at 10 MWp intended as MW capacity installed before the connection to the grid.

Based on the installed capacity, the renewable energy generated during the support period should be equivalent to at least the FLH defined in the call text (full load hours). Details on the requested amounts of FLH per phase / WP are specified in section 10 of the call document 'Legal and financial set-up of the Grant Agreement'.

A ‘ceiling price’ defines the maximum price per kWh or kW that can be awarded the RENEWFM. Any applications with prices per kWh or kW higher than the ceiling price are excluded from the grant award procedure. For more information, see Article 7(6) of the RENEWFM Implementing Regulation. Only price offers that do not exceed this ceiling price will be eligible.

A partial or failure in delivery of the project results, depending on the specific case and its severity, can lead to suspension, termination, or reduction of the grant amount as specified in article 14 (2) of the RENEWFM Regulation.

At application stage, applicants have to include the fixed amount of full load hours (FLH). Once the project is commissioned, the real production will be monitored. If the production is higher, it is positive, but this does not lead to an increase of the grant.

Call text section 10 contains the reporting requirement where certain levels of tolerance are identified. If sufficiently justified by the specific conditions below these thresholds, the grant will have to be proportionally reduced. However, it has to be highlighted that the target FLH amount is to be intended as an average over the 15 years. Therefore, it is possible that during some years the amount of FLH will not even reach the tolerance threshold. This would not lead to a grant reduction as long as the average is reached over the 15 years and the lower production for specific years, as appropriate, is sufficiently justified.

There is no need to have an EPC signed at the moment of the application. In the proposal, applicants should describe the latest state of play with regards to EPC contracts or any other contracts foreseen in the project.

No, the purpose of the 10MW threshold is to ensure a sufficient project size, in order to reflect the preferences expressed by the Member States participating in the mechanism. If the projects that the project developer is considering to bundle are completely separated from each other without interconnections and grouped for the purpose of participating to this call, they would indeed not be eligible for financing. In order for such bundling to be accepted as a single project, the bundled projects need to be integrated.

Yes, in case the state of the area corresponds to the definition of forest / agricultural land in use, this prevails over the definition of the master plan.

For the purpose of this call, what counts is the actual state of the area. If the area does not fall within the definition of forest, regardless of the master plan definition of the area, it will not be considered forest.

The requirement on a 20% maximum deforestation aims at limiting the deforestation as a direct consequence of the project. We will consider a linkage between deforestation and the project implementation for any deforestation happening from the opening of the call onwards. For this call, a forest is understood under the classification scheme set up by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and applies the following definition: a forest is land with tree crown cover (or equivalent stocking level) of more than 10% and an area of more than 0.5 hectares. The trees should be able to reach a minimum height of 5 meters at maturity in site. This definition applies to any forest, being natural forest, forest plantation and/or in production and regardless of what is defined in the masterplan. Peatland does not fall within this definition.

As a general rule, for the purposes of the call, applicants should refer to the definitions provided in the call text and related Q&A, since this definition could diverge from what is foreseen by the local authorities.

For the purpose of this call, peatland is not considered agricultural land nor forest.

In the application phase, the FLH should be calculated in MWdc. During the implementation, projects should demonstrate that the minimum FLH the foreseen energy production has been delivered. This is done via a proof provided by the competent authority (normally a DSO). For that reason, the FLH should be calculated using as a basis the MWhac, since this is the type of electricity that is injected in the grid.

The section of the application form refers primarily to the applicants themselves, however if the Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) contractor has been already chosen, the applicant can also include information regarding the EPC contractors (including the staff involved) provided that it is clear that the information refers to the EPC contractor and not to the applicant.

We request information only on the total budget via the template "lump sum calculator". Applicants do not need to indicate information regarding the budget at staff member level.

Under RENEWFM-2026-INVEST, as a rule of thumb, extensions up to 12 months would be considered limited only if duly justified and not abusive. Please note that we reserve the right to refuse requests for extensions that we consider going against the call objectives or being not justified or abusive, such as for instance requests that are not in line with the Grant AgreementPDFprovisions (see article 32) or that are linked to a delayed final investment decision due to market conditions or delays due to a change of project sponsor (e.g. asset sale).”

At application phase, the application must credibly show that the applicant will be able to implement the project in line with the call conditions. When the project is approved and the grant agreement signed, the funding will be disbursed to the beneficiary in line with the call requirement and the grant agreement terms. Therefore, If the company that applies and is selected then sells the project, this has to be formalised via a grant agreement amendment. This amendment is not automatic. It is to be noted that in case of an amendment request, there is a new evaluation of the project in order to comply with the award decision. In particular, the new owner of the project will have to prove to be sound, both operationally and financially. In case the amendment is approved, the funding will be disbursed to the new owner, in line with the call requirements and the grant agreement provisions.

The grant payments will follow the completion of specific milestones by the project, which are spelled out in the grant agreement as mandatory work packages WPs based on the following schedule:

-WP 1 Construction Phase: 60% of the maximum grant amount upon a proof of entry into operation/feed-in to the grid

-WP 2 Operating Phase I: 20% of the maximum grant amount upon a proof of generation of at least the full load hours per year mentioned in the call until end of year 2 after entry into operation

-WP 3 Operating Phase II: 20% of the maximum grant amount upon a proof of generation of at least the full load hours per year mentioned in the call text until year 4 after entry into operation

-WP 4: 0% of the maximum grant amount (after 15 years)

Proof of energy delivery over the 15 years of operation will be checked by the granting authority by means of e.g. copy of notification to DSO / TSO / responsible authority certifying the produced energy. If the project does not reach the outputs set out in the call document and subsequently fixed in the grant agreement , the amount of the grant will be proportionally reduced. If the project fails to enter into operation, the granting authority may terminate the grant and the full grant amount will be recovered.

The RENEWFM is a lump-sum payment award for the investment linked to the construction of a project. There is no consequence in case the project exceeds the target generation set out in the Grant Agreement. The lump sum will not be increased.

Project changes can happen during the project's life and depending on the change, they are treated as grant agreement amendments. The changes can include, inter alia, changes in the beneficiaries. Each project is assessed on a case-by-case basis; as a general principle, the beneficiary should demonstrate that the requested change does not modify the nature of the selected project, and that it does not jeopardise the award decision. In particular, it should be kept in mind that projects are selected also on the basis of financial and operational capacity to ensure project implementation.

This is technically possible, however it is not advised. Indeed, in case of approval, during the grant agreement preparation, the timeline would have to be changed since there cannot be negative months. The starting date of the project is always month 0.

Yes, these can be part of the documents that can be submitted at application stage to demonstrate availability of funds.

During the first 15 years of the projects’ operation, a yearly report is required as a proof of compliance to the minimum generation expected from the project and set out in the grant agreement. This report serves as proof to account for the statistical units to be transferred to the contributing country, but does not give ownership to the electricity produced. The electricity produced always remains to the ownership of the project developer.

The payments under this call for proposals are for investment support. Therefore, payments are disbursed upon completion of specific milestones as defined by the grant agreements.