A public call for co-financing renewable energy sources in family homes, worth €38 million, closed on September 4 after being open for less than two and a half days. The call opened on September 2 at 9 a.m., and by the time it closed, the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund had received a total of 9,320 applications.

Of these, citizens most frequently applied for funding for photovoltaic power plants, with around 8,300 applications, while 1,324 applications were related to heat pumps and 1,460 to energy storage systems, namely batteries.

The speed with which the call closed is particularly notable when compared with previous programmes. The 2025 call was open for almost three months, from June to September 2025, while another call in 2025, published at the beginning of September, remained open until November. At the same time, the available funding was significantly lower than under the current call.

This level of response therefore raises the question of what has changed compared with previous years.

One possible reason is certainly the state of the energy market and uncertainty over future energy prices. For some households, generating their own electricity is becoming increasingly important as a way of reducing exposure to price fluctuations and increasing energy independence. However, energy price trends alone are unlikely to explain such a sudden surge in interest.

Another important factor could be the new electricity billing system that came into effect on January 1, 2026. Some citizens who had already submitted applications to install photovoltaic systems during 2025 and received approval subsequently completed their investments this year. It is possible that the combination of previously approved projects, changes to the billing system and households’ desire to reduce their energy costs as quickly as possible further increased demand for new subsidies.

This also raises the question of whether such a high level of interest will continue into 2027.

It is difficult to say with certainty at this stage. Interest in photovoltaic systems is likely to remain strong, but the same number of applications may not necessarily be repeated within such a short period. This year’s result could, at least in part, be the consequence of a specific moment in which several factors have coincided: changes to electricity billing, previously approved investments, energy prices and the availability of a relatively large amount of public funding.

In other words, the question is not only how many citizens are interested in generating their own energy, but also why that interest has become so concentrated within such a short period this year.

What will be particularly interesting to monitor is whether a similar pace of applications will be repeated once the market has adapted to the new rules and a large share of the projects initiated during 2025 and 2026 has been completed.

For now, the figures point to very strong public interest in investing in their own energy generation and storage. However, only future calls for funding will show whether this year’s surge represents a new long-term trend or a specific wave of demand driven by the changes that took place during 2026.