- They will make it possible to renovate tourist accommodation buildings and those linked to the sector.
- The deadline for the submission of applications shall be 31 December 2024.
Following the publication in the Official Gazette of the Basque Country of the new bases of the Aid Programme for Energy Efficiency Projects for Tourism Enterprises under the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, the programme allocation has increased to €6.4 million.
In addition, the programme makes substantial changes to the first call, including:
- The programme allocation will be EUR 6.4 million following theincrease in the financial envelope.
- The typology of eligible projects that were initially limited to the “Tourist Establishment of Accommodation” defined in Law 13/2016, of Tourism of the Basque Country is broadened, including the actions performed in buildings linked to the tourism sector that have one of the following codes of the National Classification of Economic Activities:
4931 Passenger transport by land and urban or suburban.
4932 Taxi transportation.
4939 Other inland passenger transport modes not elsewhere classified.
5010 Maritime passenger transport.
5030 Passenger transport by inland waterways.
5110 Air passenger transport.
5221 Activities related to land transport.
5222 Activities related to maritime and inland waterway transport
5223 Air transport activities.
5510 Hotels and similar accommodation.
5520 Tourist accommodation and other short-stay accommodation.
5530 Campsites and caravan parks.
5590 Other accommodation.
5610 Restaurants and food stalls
5621 Provision of previously prepared meals for events.
5629 Other food services.
7711 Rental of cars and light motor vehicles.
7721 Renting of leisure and sport items.
7911 Travel agency activities.
7912 Activities of wholesale travel agencies.
7990 Other booking services and related activities.
8230 Organization of meetings and fairs.
855 Other teachings.
9004 Event room management.
9102 Museums activities.
9103 Management of historic sites and buildings.
9104 Botanical gardens, zoos and nature reserves activities.
9321 Activities of amusement parks and theme parks.
9329 Other leisure and entertainment activities.
- Eligible actions are extended and made more flexible, including photovoltaic and wind energy stored or not, allowing the incorporation of renewable thermal systems without the need to completely replace current equipment.
- The minimum investment per application is reduced to EUR 3,000 and the maximum amounts of aid that the beneficiary may receive per dossier are extended to EUR 300,000 per dossier and EUR 500.000 per applicant.
- Energy requirements are reduced and the requirement for eligible actions on buildings built before 1 January 2020 is made more flexible.
The deadline for the submission of applications shall be 31 December 2024, with the deadline for implementation, invoicing and justification of actions being 30 April 2025.
The aid programme aims to speed up the rehabilitation of buildings and other buildings linked to the sector for the establishment of tourist accommodation, as well as to increase the competitiveness of Basque tourism enterprises. The impetus of this support programme will enable developed projects to introduce standards in the fields of energy efficiency and the circular economy with the aim of reducing the carbon footprint and energy costs of such projects.
The aid may be granted to persons who own establishments or buildings located in the Basque Country and who comply with the description of tourist accommodation set out in the sectoral regulations and are also intended for other economic activities related to the tourism sector, as well as to their operators, tenants or concessionaires, which carry out the following activities:
- Type 1.– Actions to improve the energy efficiency of the thermal envelope.
- Type 2.- Implementation of renewable energies in thermal installations of heating, air conditioning, cooling, ventilation and sanitary hot water including the installation of heat and cold networks powered by renewable energy sources and/orresidual heat for tourist complexes of certain buildings.
- Type 3.- Storage or not of photovoltaic and wind installations in the self-consumption modality.
- Type 4 – Actions to improve the energy efficiency of lighting installations.
All files relating to this aid programme (requests, requirements, notifications, rectifications and other actions) will be processed by electronic means, applying the electronic processing of the Basque Government Tramitagune, available on the website Euskadi.eus and on the website of the EVE www.eve.eus.
Energy Strategy of the Basque Country 2030
This aid programme is being developed in the context of the measures that the European Council, in July 2020, as part of the measures taken within the European Union to promote convergence, resilience and transformation in the European Union, unify the reinforced multiannual financial framework for the period 2021-2027 and the European Recovery Instrument (Next Generation EU) initiative of € 750,000 million.
Commitments to improve the energy situation are also included in the 2030 Energy Strategy of the Basque Government, which has been developed according to the main trends and guidelines at international and state level. The same strategy includes a concrete line of action through which appropriate measures are established to reduce energy consumption and increase the use of renewable energy in buildings.
Specifically, it aims, among others, to reduce by 2030 the level of primary energy consumption by 19% compared to 2008, adopting energy efficiency actions intensively in all sectors that consume energy and increasing the use of renewable energies so as to achieve a 21% representation in the final consumption structure.
