Implementation of fiscal benefits for the use of clean technologies in the Industry: The experience from the Basque Country
11 February 2008

The "Clean Technology List" is a list of industrial equipment which generate an important environmental improvement within the areas of water, air, waste, resources and/or soil. It includes 64 types of equipment, products or systems which make possible a 30% deduction of the Corporate Tax quota when implemented. This List was approved by the Basque Government in 2004 making use of the fiscal autonomy of the Basque Country, and is focused on SMEs.

Technologies are selected according to certain objective criteria: the technology must be already developed for the industry, it must be available in the market but the implementation degree of the technology in the industrial sectors where it is used must be under 20%. Analysing the environmental aspects, the global impact must be positive and there shouldn't be similar technologies in the market with a smaller environmental impact. The investment must be between €2 000 and €500 000 and, following the European criteria, the payback period must not be less than five years.

Candidate technologies are evaluated to check if they fit in these criteria through an objective procedure, and when they obtain a certain score, they are included in the list. The approval is granted by an evaluation board where different Departments of the Basque Government take part.

In the area of energy and CO₂ emission reduction, the Basque List of Clean Technologies includes at the moment 23 types of equipment. There are different kind of boilers (condensation boilers, high efficiency boilers…), some types of burners, heat-pumps, solar thermal and photovoltaic collectors, wind turbines, equipment for regulation of illumination, energy saver modules…

The List is revised annually by the Evaluation Board to include new technologies and to remove those which do not fulfil any more the selection criteria.

Additional information is available in Spanish:

"Ventajas fiscales para las industrias que usan tecnologías limpias en la CAPV" (Kb PDF)