Scottish Central Government Energy Efficiency Grant scheme: form and guidance

Overview

The Scottish Central Government Energy Efficiency Grant scheme offers capital grant funding support to enable the delivery of heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency projects across the public sector. This funding is targeted towards Scottish central government organisations that have previously had limited access to borrowing funds for this type of work.

The fund also provides resource support to build a pipeline of investment-ready projects in future years, further accelerating investment in renewable heat technologies and energy efficiency across the public sector.

Energy efficiency in the public sector has been identified as an area of critical priority for transforming our buildings and the systems that supply their heat to ensure all buildings in Scotland reach zero emissions by 2045. The fund supports public sector decarbonisation, encompassing a variety of pathways and green technologies that are vital in achieving zero emissions heating systems across Scotland’s buildings.

Since the scheme launched in June 2021, over £40 million of Capital grant funding has been committed to heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency projects, and £1.5 million of resource funding committed to pre-capital projects.

Open funding call 2022 to 2026

In May 2022, we announced an open invitation to eligible public bodies to apply for funding through the Scottish Central Government Energy Efficiency Grant scheme. The fund will remain open to applicants until 2025/2026.

This invitation calls upon eligible public bodies to deliver projects that can effectively contribute towards our ambitions for Scotland to achieve net zero emissions by 2045. Applications for single year and multi-year projects are welcomed.

As a minimum, the Scottish Central Government Energy Efficiency Grant scheme will invest capital funding support of £30 million in 2023/2024. Capital funding budget for 2024/2025 will be announced in early 2024.

The scheme is currently closed to pre-capital funding applications. Funding availability for 2024/2025 will be announced in early 2024 and confirmation of pre-capital funding checkpoints will be shared with the mailing list soon.

This invitation is part of an overall fund totalling £200 million available over this parliamentary term through the Scottish Green Public Sector Estate Decarbonisation scheme.

Applicants will be able to apply for up to £2.5 million worth of capital funding per applicant each year, and up to £60k worth of pre-capital funding per applicant per year.

Applications for multi-year capital-funded projects are welcomed. Pre-capital projects must be in a position to complete within the financial year.