Grants to agricultural cooperatives for photovoltaic installations

The aid is intended to support the increased production of energy from renewable sources through the installation of grid-connected photovoltaic systems, also combined with storage systems, whose electricity produced will be used to meet the beneficiary's energy needs.

The investment must be made and located in the territory of the Province of Trento.

1. Only systems for self-consumption will be eligible for funding. To this end, expenses relating to the purchase and installation of photovoltaic systems (including inverters and anchoring systems) with peak power (P) from 20 kWp up to 1000 kWp are eligible.
2. The maximum expenditure limit per kWp is € 2,000.00/kWp for systems with a power output of up to 50 kWp and € 1,500.00/kWp for systems with a power output of more than 50 and up to 1000 kWp, subject to the maximum limit set out in paragraph 6 below. For systems with a higher power output, the eligible expenditure will in any case be subject to the ceilings set out in the Call for Proposals.
3. The plants must be built on farm structures, and/or their appurtenances, instrumental to the applicant's activity, or installed on the ground in compliance with urban planning regulations and with Provincial Law no. 4/2022, (provincial law on renewable sources 2022).
4. The systems must also be connected to the beneficiary's meter. The meter must be separate from the one for residential use.
5. The purchase and installation of a storage system is admissible with a maximum expenditure of € 1,000.00/kWh, with a maximum overall admissible expenditure limit of € 50,000.00, exclusively in addition to the interventions referred to in paragraph 1 above.
6. The maximum total eligible expenditure limit per plant, including the expenses provided for in paragraphs 2 and 5 above and according to the subdivision of paragraph 1 above, for plants is € 1,000,000.00.
7. Only one application for aid under this Call for Proposals may be submitted. In the case of applications comprising the installation of more than one photovoltaic plant, the maximum power and the maximum amount of eligible expenditure for the same shall be calculated by counting the sum of the kWp of each plant, within the maximum admissible limits established by the Call for Proposals.

The aid intensity is 40% of eligible expenditure for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs);

The aid intensity is 30% of eligible expenditure for large enterprises.

Aid will be granted in the form of capital grants.

The following expenditure is not eligible

1. photovoltaic systems installed on the ground, and which therefore consume land, in areas other than those permitted under current urban planning regulations and Provincial Law no. 4/2022 (provincial law on renewable energy sources 2022)
2. investments that are merely replacements for existing systems, which do not lead to an improvement in energy performance of at least 50% compared to the existing systems
3. expenses for dismantling and disposal of existing installations;
4. costs of removing and disposing of asbestos or eternit;
5. technical expenses;
6. the purchase and installation of a storage system to be used on existing plants;
7. investments necessary to achieve the standards required by law;
8. investments made on an economic basis (supply of works, goods and services for which no payment has been made justified by expenditure documents)
9. consultancy services for obtaining public grants and after-sales support and management services;
10. leasing transactions;
11. value added tax (VAT);
12. payments to persons without VAT registration;
13. costs related to penalties, charges and court and litigation expenses;
14. debit interest and interest on arrears;
15. commissions on financial transactions, exchange losses and other purely financial charges;
16. incidental expenses (e.g. notary fees, finance charges, stamp duty, tax expenses, contingencies, travel, meals and lodging);
17. purchase and installation of used goods;
18. ordinary and extraordinary maintenance work;
19. invoices or equivalent supporting documents not in the name of the beneficiary. In the event of succession due to the death of the sole proprietor, invoices in the name of one or more heirs are admissible until the succession is settled;
20. payments made in a manner not covered by this Call for Proposals or by offsetting.

Grant applications must be submitted from 16 February 2023 to 31 May 2023.

Pursuant to Article 12(1) of Provincial Law no. 4/2003, the initiatives subject to funding must be carried out after the application has been submitted.

In order to be eligible for funding, the initiative must in any case be carried out in compliance with the provisions set out in the notice of criteria approved by decision of the Provincial Council no. 219 dated 10 February 2023.

Pursuant to Article 6 of Provincial Law 4/2003, the grant of the contribution shall entail the obligation for the beneficiary not to dispose of, transfer or in any case not to divert from their use the assets for which the contribution was granted for at least 10 years from the date of the application for final payment of the contribution.

In the event of failure to comply with the time limit set out in paragraph 1, the beneficiary shall be required, except in cases of force majeure, to repay the grant awarded in proportion to the residual duration of the current period. The residual duration shall be calculated from the date of ascertainment of the circumstances giving rise to the revocation of the grant until the end of the respective period. The corresponding amount is to be repaid plus interest at the legal rate in force at the time.

The beneficiary of the facilitation must in any case allow the personnel in charge of monitoring the application of the regulations in force free access to the facilities and the documentation relating to the subject matter of the facilitation granted.

Checks on compliance with the obligations imposed on the beneficiary subject to Article 6 of Provincial Law no. 4/2003 are carried out on a sample equal to 5% of the interventions subject to constraints referred to in paragraph 1, in accordance with the provisions of the provincial regulations in force on the matter. The check on the declarations in lieu of certification and affidavits shall be carried out on a sample of at least 5% of the applications, according to the provisions of the provincial regulations in force on the matter.

In the event that the beneficiary, after the submission of the application for aid and before the granting of the same, is succeeded by another person as a result of a transfer, sale of the holding, other operation on the holding, or as a result of a transformation or other corporate operation, the succeeding person is allowed to take over the ownership of the application. The Agricultural Service verifies that the subjective eligibility requirements set out in point 2 of this call for applications are met by the person taking over; if they are met, it grants the subsidy to that person; if, on the other hand, it finds that the requirements are not met, it denies the subsidy.

Subsequent to the granting of the aid, before its liquidation, the beneficiary (transferor) may be succeeded by another person (transferee) as a result of a transfer or sale of the holding, other operation on the holding, or transformation or other corporate operation. The Agricultural Service verifies that the transferee meets the subjective eligibility requirements set out in point 2 of this notice; if it ascertains that the requirements are met, it orders the takeover and notifies the same; if, on the other hand, it ascertains that the requirements are not met, it orders the revocation of the facilitation.

TERMS OF PAYMENT

Eligible expenses are those incurred by the beneficiary exclusively paid by bank or postal transfer or by Riba, to the current account in the name of the beneficiary (current account dedicated, even if not exclusively, to the initiative).

It is compulsory to quote the Unique Project Code (Cup) on all invoices (style sheets) and in all payments. The code is attributed by the Agricultural Service and will be communicated to each beneficiary.

The following rules must be observed with regard to the CUP

- the CUP must always be present in the documents proving the expenditure (invoices and payment documents) issued after the CUP has been communicated

- reconciliation" is allowed by manually affixing the CUP code and accompanying it with a declaration issued by the beneficiary in the following cases

(i) expenditure documents eligible under the call for proposals and issued before the communication of the CUP code

ii) error in entering the CUP code;

iii) presence of the CUP code on at least one of the documents giving evidence of the expenditure (invoice or receipt).

The following are eligible for aid

• agricultural cooperatives and cooperatives engaged in the harvesting, processing and marketing of agricultural products and their consortia, which are entered in the register of cooperatives in the Province of Trento referred to in Regional Law No 7 of 29 January 1954 (Vigilanza sulle cooperative)
• joint stock companies whose exclusive or predominant corporate purpose is the harvesting, processing and marketing of Trentino agricultural products and which are owned by cooperatives or consortia thereof, entered in the register of cooperatives referred to in Regional Law No. 7 of 1954, which hold, individually or in association, at least 51% of the capital shares.

and which

• have a place of business or an active operational unit indicated as a local unit in the Chamber of Commerce's land registry in the territory of the Province of Trento
• are in possession, on the date of application, of a business file in the Province of Trento and validated in the year of application; if they do not have one, it must be set up with a CAA;
• are not undertakings in difficulty as defined by current Community legislation;
• are not undertakings when they are recipients of recoveries of aid granted and then withdrawn, without repayment of the same;
• are not companies that have already received public aid for the same investment;
• are owners of the building on which the initiative will be carried out.

The application may be submitted by the legal representative of the company,( a consultant may be usedto enter the application in SRTrento only ).

The application for assistance must be submitted exclusively in telematic mode (online) by accessing the portal https://srt.infotn.it.

Access to the reserved area of SRTrento is allowed only to registered users, therefore each user must be accredited in advance according to the procedures indicated in the manual on the home page as specified on this web page We recommend in this regard to carefully consult the manual for first access to the portal, where the various phases of the accreditation procedure are detailed. Applications submitted must be signed using a valid digital signature device, so it is advisable to have one in advance. For any assistance in accessing and enabling the portal, please contact helpdesk.srtrento@provincia.tn.it.

The application must be digitally signed by the legal representative of the company or it will be inadmissible.

Any VARIANTS to the initiative, which must be pertinent to the technical and economic aims of the intervention, must be requested in advance through the computerised procedures of the portal https://srt.infotn.it/, digitally signed by the legal representative of the company.

Only variants that do not entail an overrun of the eligible expenditure are allowed.

Variants are to be considered all changes to the original project that entail modifications to the objectives and parameters that made the initiative eligible for funding, in particular: change of beneficiary, change of location of the investment, substantial technical modifications to the approved initiative.

Variants must be requested in advance and will be approved, including any discounts and savings, by specific measure. Variants to the original project are not considered to be detailed modifications or improved technical solutions if they are directly connected to the approved project and are supplementary and functional to it. Any use of bid rebates or savings in the implementation of these changes will be assessed and, if necessary, approved during final acceptance. The documentation to be attached to the variant application is, in principle, the same as that envisaged for the submission of the initial application. It may be reduced according to the relevance of the variant submitted and with regard to the expenses affected by the variant, including an explanatory report and a comparative table.

The application contains the declaration in lieu of certification and affidavit, made by the legal representative or owner of the enterprise, stating

• whether the applicant is a micro, small, medium or large enterprise;

• whether the applicant is an enterprise in difficulty within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 651/2014 of 17 June 2014;

• whether the applicant has received public aid for the same investments;

• whether the applicant, at the date of submission of the application, has already submitted applications for public aid for the same investments, with an indication of the details of the application submitted, if any.

The application also contains a simple declaration

• of the commitment to remove asbestos/eternit from the surface on which the installation of the plant is planned to be carried out or of the fact that the installation of the plant will not be carried out on surfaces containing asbestos/eternit;
• that it is not an investment that is part of a building intervention that includes obligations to install renewable sources;
• that it is not a purely replacement investment, as defined in paragraph 2 of point 3.3 of Annex 1 to Provincial Council Resolution No. 219/2023.

DOCUMENTATION TO BE ATTACHED TO THE APPLICATION

1. detailed cost estimate signed by the supplier

2. technical report signed by the qualified technician of the works to be carried out, including

• the correct sizing of the plant with respect to the company's needs, separating the needs relating to primary agricultural production activities from those relating to processing and marketing activities and agri-tourism activities (with particular reference to the average annual consumption in kWh in the three-year period prior to the date of submission of the application)

• indication of the percentage of coverage of the applicant's energy needs - also considering other plants already installed or in the process of being installed - through the construction of the plant constituting the intervention. In the case of interventions on existing systems, the initiative being financed must lead to an improvement in energy performance of at least 50% with respect to pre-existing systems;

• indication of the number of kW at the company meter, on the contract existing at the time the application is submitted;

• statement on the need for a building permit;

• certification that the investment exceeds the standards required by law and complies with national and provincial energy efficiency standards;

• planimetry indicating the location of the intervention, with indication of cadastral parcels and map extract;

3. for the installation of photovoltaic systems on property owned by third parties, a simple copy of the registered contract of availability of the property, accompanied by the authorisation of the owner to carry out the work, except in the case of the existence of a family business pursuant to Article 230 bis of the Civil Code

4. a plain copy of the minutes or duly signed extract thereof with which the competent statutory body approves the initiative

5. for initiatives with budgeted expenditure in excess of €75,000.00, the report on the economic assessment and financial sustainability of the investment, which must be signed by the legal representative of the applicant company, the trade association, if the applicant company is a member, the chairman of the internal control body, if appointed, and the statutory auditor, if appointed, or if not, by a registered auditor.

Documents to be submitted to request CONTRIBUTION LIQUIDATION AND REPORTING:

For the payment of the contribution, an application must be submitted, completed and signed by the applicant, using the computerised procedures made available to users on the portal https://srt.infotn.it., specifying the amount requested, net of VAT and ineligible expenses.

The application shall contain a declaration in lieu of certification or affidavit certifying that it has not received other public aid for the same subsidised expenses, or, in cases of cumulation, indicating the details of other public aid received.

Together with the application for payment of the grant, the following documentation must be entered in the above-mentioned portal

1. invoice (style sheet) or other supporting document for the expenditure showing the Unique Project Code - CUP - communicated at the time the grant was awarded, in accordance with the instructions set out in section 8 of this Notice. The invoice or supporting document for the expenditure shall contain a detailed description of the project to which it relates;
2. bank or postal transfer or RIBA, to an account in the name of the beneficiary, indicating in the reason for payment the CUP, number and date of the expenditure document. In the case of absence or inaccurate indication of the details of the expenditure document within the bank transfer, the disclaimer declaration made by the supplier may be acquired;
3. a simple copy of the declaration of conformity of the systems, as required by the relevant regulations in force
4. indication of the details of the authorisation title, communication of free works or other suitable documentation required for the implementation of the works, in compliance with the applicable urban planning regulations;
5. certificate of regular execution, if necessary for the type of works, signed by an authorised professional.

Within 30 days from the day following the deadline for submitting applications, the ranking lists are approved, by a determination of the manager of the Agricultural Service, on the basis of the merit scores awarded according to the 'selection criteria' defined in point 6 of this notice.

If an application is submitted outside the time limits laid down in paragraph 1 of point 5.1 of this notice or in a manner different from those laid down in paragraph 2 of the same point 5, the Director of the Agricultural Service will inform the applicant that the application is inadmissible.

The time limit for the conclusion of the procedure for granting or refusing aid is set at 90 days starting from the day after the approval of the ranking list of applications referred to in paragraph 2 above, without prejudice to possible suspensions.

In the case of applications included in the ranking list but not eligible for funding due to lack of resources, the manager of the Agricultural Service adopts a measure of non-acceptance pursuant to Provincial Law 23/92 and notifies the applicant.

The reporting of the initiative must be made within 1 year from the date of the measure granting the contribution.

It will be possible to request only one extension of a maximum duration of 1 year.