ESB is giving a helping hand to customers who wish to connect to district heating in Biel. Energie Service Bienne has just launched a subsidy for the replacement of oil, gas or electric heaters for this more ecological and sustainable alternative.
An offer that aims to get closer to the objective of climate neutrality of the Seeland city by 2050. The canton of Bern already offers a similar solution for owners, regardless of their individual installation. “The ESB subsidy therefore supplements that of the canton”, specifies Olivier Rammelaere. One way to convince customers to take the plunge into renewable energy, hopes the manager of the hot/cold sector. The energy supplier therefore undertakes to reimburse the residual value of installations using fossil or electrical energy.
On several conditions
However, ESB issues several conditions before issuing these grants. The fossil fuel or electric storage heating system must be less than 20 years old and the building must be near a thermal network in Biel territory. “The more recent the installation, the higher the amount of the subsidy will be”, emphasizes Olivier Rammelaere.
Concretely, what does it give? Consider a detached house with an oil-fired boiler of regarding 16 kW installed seven years ago. The system is still working properly and it is not in the customer’s interest to connect to the district heating right away. Cantonal and Biel aid aims to encourage him to make this change despite everything.
In this specific case, the cantonal support will amount to 5,300 francs, that of ESB to 5,200 francs, i.e. a total of 10,500 francs in contributions. The investment to operate the connection is estimated at approximately 11,200 francs. In other words, more than 90% of the change costs are covered by these subsidies, assures Olivier Rammelaere. /ddc