Zelená domácnostiam (Green for Households)

By project REC4EU

Published on 27 September 2024

Slovakia

About this good practice

The scheme is aimed at supporting the installation of small devices for the use of RES in households, which are family houses and apartment buildings used for the purpose of living. Main beneficiaries of this project are natural persons. The project is implemented on the entire territory of the Slovak Republic.
A small device in the production of electricity is a device with a power of up to 10 kW. In heat production, a small device is a device that covers the energy consumption of the building.
Project helps households to overcome the economic barrier caused by the longer payback of small devices for the use of RES, as well as the obstacle caused by the ratio of their purchase price to the real purchasing power of the population.
Support for the installation of small devices for the use of RES is carried out through vouchers, which are issued on the basis of a request submitted by the household and after the voucher has been activated by the technical provider.
Supported RES devices are photovoltaic panels, solar collectors, heat pumps, biomass boilers and wind turbines.
The first three rounds of national project Green for Households were financed by ERDF through the Operational programme Quality of Environment (2014 – 2020). The current round is financed by ERDF through the Programme Slovakia (2021 – 2027).

Resources needed

The practice requires a budget for subsidies (in our case, 40 % of the total cost on average), and a staff to run the calls (up to 10 FTE on average). The beneficiaries are required to keep the subsidized RES devices operational for at least 2 years after receiving the funding.

Evidence of success

Within the three rounds of the scheme so far (2015-2023), the total subsidy of more than 181 M € was given to the applicants to support the installation of 86,882 new RES devices with total installed power of nearly 690 MW. The scheme will continue in 2024-2029, with the allocated budget of more than 151 M €.
This scheme has proven to be the most successful support scheme for RES deployment in households in Slovakia.

Potential for learning or transfer

This practice represents a clear and easy-to-replicate support scheme for subsidizing the installation of small RES devices in households and apartment buildings, which helps to overcome the financial barriers related to the initial investments in hardware. The criteria of support are clearly defined for each type of RES device, and the amount of support depends on the power installed of the RES devices (there is a fixed amount per kW of power installed, and the maximum device power in kW eligible for each type of device). The applicants choose from the wide range of technical providers, and of devices available on the market, which comply with the technical conditions of the scheme (both the providers and the devices have to be registered in the scheme), therefore a free choice for the consumers is assured.