Industry today faces two major challenges decarbonizing its activities, which are still heavily dependent on fossil fuels, and preserving its competitiveness in the face of rising energy prices. The answer to these two challenges? Energy optimization. The good news is that there are grants and subsidies available to help you finance your projects.
The industrial sector accounts for 1/5th of France's energy consumption. This consumption obviously translates into substantial electricity and gas bills... and increasingly heavy ones at that. Added to this is often an invisible cost : energy loss from installations that have outlived their useful life. Optimizing the efficiency of existing systems is therefore essential. There are many possibilities, such as optimizing utilities, heat recovery, implementing less energy-intensive processes and so on. To reduce the cost of these various works, two financial mechanisms are available today : Certificats d'Économies d'Energie (CEE) and aides publiques. But what kinds of projects can you have subsidized ? How can you combine CEE and public aid? And how can you guarantee you'll get the funding you need? This article provides an overview.
What types of projects can be subsidized?
Standard CEE operations
Les Certificats d'Économies d'Energie (CEE) are a regulatory scheme set up by the government as part of the POPE Law, to reduce the country's overall carbon footprint. It requires energy suppliers to fund thermal upgrades in businesses and private homes. The work in question? Those that generate substantial energy savings, don't cause an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, and aren't solely a regulatory obligation.
There are two types of work.
There are two types of CEE, standard or specific. The former, which are easily deployed on a large scale, are listed in standardized sheets, which can be consulted in the national file Emmy. For industry, there are 34 operations.
The most frequent are :
- Energy performance indicator measurement system (IND-UT-134)
- Motor control system (IND-UT-136)
- Electronic speed variation system on an asynchronous motor (IND-UT-102)
- Heat recovery system on an air compressor (IND-UT-103)
- Heat recovery system on cooling production unit (IND-UT-117)
- Regulation system on a cold production group enabling floating high or low pressure (IND-UT-116 for floating high pressure and IND-UT-115 for low pressure)
Important: some operations have been abused (e.g. equipment oversized in relation to need to obtain a higher premium), and controls are being stepped up. The following operations now require an in-depth sizing note, in order to certify useful power (for example, matching heating and cooling requirements in the case of heat recovery from chillers) :
- Cooling unit heat recovery system (IND-UT-117)
- Motor control system (IND-UT-136)
- Energy performance indicator measurement system (IND-UT-134)
Good to know : your energy efficiency coaching and training programs can also be financed by CEE premiums.
The procedure for activating a CEE premium is as follows. It is important to sign the supporting documents in chronological order.
Specific CEE operations
These are tailor-made energy-saving projects, which do not fit into the catalog of standard operations. For example, a project to recover waste heat for on-site use, or the installation of innovative equipment.
Since 2019, specific CEE premiums are open to sites subject to EU-ETS quotas, if the classified facility is covered by an energy management system (e.g. ISO 500001).
Please note : Any project not covered by a CEE application through a standardized operation and with a gross payback time on investment of more than three years may be the subject of a specific operation.
Public grants to finance your energy savings
In addition to CEE, there is a range of national or territorial funding. They are multiple, complex to decipher, but constitute very interesting possibilities. We can mention for example :
The Heat Fund
The Fonds Chaleur, also known as the Fonds Chaleur Renouvelable, was created in 2009 as part of the Grenelle Environment Round Table. Managed by ADEME, it finances heat production projects from renewable energies and energy recovery, as well as heat networks linked to these installations. Grants are awarded to projects producing heat from:
- Renewable energies (solar thermal, geothermal, biomass and biogas);
- Recovered energy (for example, heat recovered from incineration plants);
- Or both jointly.
Plan France 2030, Decarb' IND 2023 and Decarb' IND+
The Decarb' IND 2023 plan aims to reduce industry's greenhouse gases, and concerns projects with an investment above 3 million euros. The scheme favors ambitious projects, integrating several decarbonization bricks. In all cases, they must enable a net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of at least 1,000 tCO2e/year on an iso-production basis. Eligibility criteria also include the decarbonization trajectory planned by the company for the 2030 and 2050 horizons.
Projects submitted for funding may focus on one of these 4 pillars:
- Energy efficiency
- Changing the energy mix
- Changing the materials mix
- Capture, storage and use of CO2
Decarb'IND+ depends on a European initiative, with a larger envelope for more ambitious projects.
Regional aid
The Regions also offer financial assistance to companies to improve their energy performance. They can concern different types of project and cover a greater or lesser proportion of your investment. Beware : some grants come in the form of calls for projects, with a deadline not to be missed.
How to combine ADEME and CEE grants?
The amount granted varies for each project, and is calculated according to many data : reference situation, nature of the operation, energy savings achieved, projected lifespan of the solution.
Financing applications take into account :
- The reference situation, which establishes to what level of performance the post-work performance will be compared. This is a fundamental element in the creation of the file.
- A calculation of projected performance and expected energy savings (forecast situation), which financing bodies compare with expected performance based on a market benchmark (counterfactual situation).
- The amount to be invested for the project, which will eventually be compared to a counterfactual CAPEX (amount of similar operations according to a market benchmark).
- A payback time calculation, based on the extra investment cost compared with the reference situation and the financial savings generated compared with the reference situation.
- The characteristics of the equipment concerned, in particular its lifespan.
Note : All these calculations are performed at equal production levels.
Within the framework of a financial package combining CEE and ADEME aid (e.g. Fonds Chaleur), ADEME bases its calculations on an eligible base. This calculation is based on the amount of the project, from which the expected CEE premiums are deducted, then the amount of ADEME aid. ADEME aid may be modulated to ensure that a gross payback time on investment of over 2 years, calculated after subsidy, is respected. If the project benefits from CEE in addition to ADEME aid, the gross payback time will therefore take both aids into account.
Certain standard CEE operations have a payback time of over 2 years and can fall within this framework :
- IND-BA-112: Heat recovery system on a cooling tower
- IND-UT-117: Heat recovery system on a cooling production unit
- IND-UT-103: Heat recovery system on an air compressor
For a simplified financing package, it's best to rely on professional expertise. In addition, it's essential to initiate your financing application before the work begins. In this case : get help well in advance.
How can I guarantee that I'll get the financing I need?
Except for standard CEE, a commissioning report is required by funding bodies, which is a condition for obtaining full funding. For EU-ETS sites, it is mandatory to provide 6 months of data proving the good performance of the installation before submitting a CEE file. For other sites, measurements are not mandatory at the time of application, but can be requested during the appraisal process. At Lemon Energy, we systematically validate site performance for at least 1 month before submission. For specific CEE, it takes 6 months for ADEME to check the file, plus a further 2 months for processing by the Emmy platform.
Attention, if the report reveals a deviation from the performance forecast in the file, the amounts already paid may be claimed back.
Industrial projects take a long time to implement, and many parameters can change along the way. To make sure you get the funding you need, it's essential to check energy performance all along the project's implementation, and notify ADEME if any significant deviations are noted during project completion. This will help you avoid unpleasant surprises.
Mounting your financing file: a headache (or not)
So, there are a number of schemes available to ease the cost of your energy optimization projects. And if you were wondering : yes, it's often possible to accumulate CEE with public aid, but it's not automatic. You need to find out on a case-by-case basis. This is not an easy task, as there are many different types of aid, some of which are subject to a precise timetable, and some of which have heterogeneous criteria.
Soliciting financing is not something you can improvise. Specific CEE grants in particular require triple technical, administrative and financial expertise. The Lemon Energy team is well-versed in this field. We study all the financing options available to you, and help you put together your application, to give you every chance of successfully completing your energy optimization projects.
