Latvia raises energy support for Honor Family households

Latvia’s government has approved increased support for Honor Family certificate holders buying solar panels and other environmentally friendly energy equipment, LSM reported. The changes also expand options for replacing heating systems and reduce administrative requirements, according to the Ministry of Climate and Energy.

The support rate for Honor Family certificate holders will rise from 70% to 85% of eligible costs. The higher rate will apply to solar panels, electricity storage equipment, heat pumps, pellet boilers, solar collectors, wind generators and connections to district heating.

Support will also become available for replacing inefficient wood-burning and pellet boilers with more modern heating equipment, including pellet boilers, pellet stoves, solar collectors and heat pumps.

Residents will no longer have to abandon their existing heating system to qualify for support. This will allow households to use combined solutions, such as keeping an existing boiler while adding a heat pump or other environmentally friendly equipment.

The programme will also remove previous limits on the capacity of solar collector storage tanks and the total installed capacity of renewable energy equipment. The minimum nominal capacity for electricity storage equipment will increase from 5 kilowatt-hours to 10 kWh to encourage more complete use of electricity generated by households.

Households that received support to install heat-generation equipment will no longer have to submit annual monitoring reports.

About 20 million euros is currently available under the programme, while support for one project can reach 15,000 euros.

Residents who installed heating equipment after March 9, 2022, but have not yet applied for support, will be able to do so until the end of 2026.