Sustainable steam production with tax benefits

14 March 2024

In 2020, at Scharff Techniek’s initiative, the sustainable asset 'electric steam boilers' was included for the first time in the Energy List, allowing companies to receive tax benefits when making steam production more sustainable. The Energy List and the Environmental List are evaluated annually to ensure their continued relevance. In the 2024 editions, various changes have been made, and Scharff Techniek explains what these schemes entail and describes the key updates for steam-related assets.

Financial benefits through EIA and MIA

The EIA scheme, which stands for Energy Investment Allowance, provides government financial support to businesses investing in energy-efficient equipment, including electric steam boilers. This offers tax advantages and promotes energy conservation and sustainability. The National Government reports an increasing number of applications for the scheme, leading to a budget expansion for the coming years.

To implement the EIA scheme, an Energy List is published annually with recognized innovative and sustainable assets. The list for 2024 includes some adjustments, but these do not affect previously recognized electric steam boilers.

In addition to the EIA scheme, there is also the MIA scheme (Environmental Investment Allowance) and the Vamil scheme (Random Depreciation of Environmental Investments). These schemes offer tax advantages for investments in environmentally friendly assets. For 2024, many changes have been made, including the removal of over a hundred assets and the modification of a third of the list.

Until 2024, replacing a steam boiler with one of our gas-fired steam generators qualified for the MIA\Vamil under code B4312. Because the flue gases from these steam boilers contained no more than 50 milligrams of NOx per normal cubic meter at 3% O2, they were considered an environmentally friendly asset suitable for making steam production more sustainable.