F-Gas and natural-refrigerant subsidies in Europe — country-by-country 2026
By DigiEntropy Engineering · 2026-02-18 · 7 min read
Germany BAFA, France CEE, Italy Conto Termico, UK BUS, Spain MOVES. The national subsidy landscape that covers natural-refrigerant transitions in 2026, what each pays, and how to qualify.
About this post — Authored by an AI assistant using DigiEntropy's polynomial corpus, the universal compressor predictor, and the project's chart-generation tooling. Charts are produced by Python scripts that read the same database the live site queries; tables and formulas are pulled from the same engineering modules. Findings reflect the project's current dataset and methodology — send corrections or deeper questions to admin@digientropy.com.
The F-Gas transition is expensive. Specifying R744 transcritical instead of R448A on a new supermarket commonly adds €30-€60,000 in capital cost per store. Replacing R404A with R290 in a cold-storage facility can run six figures.
National subsidy programs across Europe close part of that gap. Most engineers and asset managers don't know how much, or don't apply because the process is intimidating. This post is the quick-reference guide.
Disclaimer: subsidy rates and rules change frequently — check the official source linked in each section before quoting numbers to a client. The figures below are accurate as of late-2025 / early-2026.
€30-€60,000 - extra capex per store - R744 transcritical instead of R448A
Specifying R744 transcritical instead of R448A on a new supermarket commonly adds €30-€60,000 in capital cost per store.
30% - Germany, BEG-EM base rate - bonus rates push it to 35-40%
Subsidy rate: 30% of eligible costs as the base; bonus rates push it to 35-40% under specific conditions.
15-25% - France, CEE - typical R744 transcritical supermarket retrofit
Translates to roughly 15-25% of capital cost for a typical R744 transcritical supermarket retrofit.
up to 65% - Italy, Conto Termico 2.0 - heat pumps using natural refrigerants
Heat pumps using natural refrigerants: up to 65% of capital costs, paid over 2-5 years.
£7,500 - UK, Boiler Upgrade Scheme - per heat pump
£7,500 per heat pump (raised from £5,000 in 2024).
7 years - payback with BAFA + bonuses - 15 years with no subsidy
BAFA + heat-recovery bonus + Berlin regional top-up: replacement adds €3.6M net capex, payback 7 years — replacement wins.
Germany — BAFA Bundesförderung effiziente Gebäude (BEG)
Germany has the most generous and structured F-Gas-related subsidies in the EU. The relevant programs, one per tab:
BEG-EM
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