Capacity building

The PROSPECT+ team has developed a Project Finance Readiness Tool in order to help local authorities assess the financial maturity of their planned sustainable energy projects. The tool is a self-assessment of the finance readiness of their projects to seek funding for its implementation. The tool further provides orientation for local authorities on the elements needed in order to provide potential financiers with a high-quality proposal.

The tool focusses on several important areas, including details about your local authority, the scope and impact of your sustainable energy project, the roles of promoters and stakeholders as well as critical legal aspects. These areas are essential to ensure that your project meets the criteria of financial institutions, increasing its chances of securing funding.

The REGIO1st Planning Framework provides a comprehensive, structured approach for regional energy planners, regional authorities' technical staff and interested stakeholders in Europe to develop and implement sustainable, cost-effective energy strategies in line with the Energy Efficiency First (EE1st) principle.

The framework is organized into eight stages, each containing specific steps that are key to the process. It also includes a suite of tools, that can assist planners through different stages of the process, while emphasizing the importance of energy efficiency solutions.

Ultimately, this framework aims to support Europe’s transition towards a low-carbon, environmentally sustainable, and economically prosperous energy system, in line with the region’s climate and energy objectives, and the Energy Efficiency First principle.

Based on year-long research, including methodologies on literature review, the assessment of 98 cases, interviews with experienced professionals and exchanges with experts, RGI and IEECP have developed the Engage4Energy Guidelines for citizens, developers and policymakers on meaningful engagement in energy infrastructure projects. The interactive tool aims at providing guidance for the user, tailored to their specific context.

The customised recommendations follow a general structure based on four key principles: early engagement, transparency, inclusiveness and trust.

They also offer specific actions to implement meaningful engagement through three levels: information sharing, consultation and empowerment. Lastly, the user has access to an inspiring example that showcases how engagement can be led in a meaningful way.

We hope to continuously update the tool. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with Diana Süsser at [email protected], should you have any suggestions for improvement.

The tool aims to develop community bioenergy projects (connecting multiple biomass providers, organise billing, etc.) and defining the required services and activities for supporting their own cases.

Activating a community energy market for bioenergy: a new e-market environment connects biomass heating supply chain stakeholders

While bioenergy holds, in practice, the highest potential for replacing fossil fuelled heat and remains a leading technology in the EU renewable energy heating sector, there is a significantly untapped market uptake potential for it. Several barriers prevent citizens from becoming (bio)energy producers and bioenergy projects to be more appealing, including a lack of preparedness for communities to tap the full bioenergy market potential, and a lack of bioenergy stakeholders’ awareness of the potential of communities. To fill these gaps, BECoop, a project funded by the Horizon 2020 programme, launches a new tool supporting stakeholders involved in the creation or update of community (bio)energy projects.

The e-market environment supports various supply chain stakeholders when developing a community bioenergy project on defining the services and activities needed to support their cases. It demonstrates the various stakeholder interactions and activities/services that must take place to set up an effective and sustainable local supply chain and a community bioenergy project, streamlining the process. The user-friendly, easy to use and intuitive tool, unique in this sector, allows entrepreneurs to identify and contact stakeholders taking part in the supply chain of biomass heating solutions, to carry out their projects, learn from the experience of others and from similar initiatives. It connects supply chain stakeholders to support the creation or operation of new and existing energy communities, including the project pilot energy communities. Now available, it gathers over 60 already sharing their offers/demands, while a second version will be ready by April 2023 and all stakeholders are invited to contribute to grow the environment.

This tool works complementarily with the support services offered by BECoop, encouraging the development and operation of community bioenergy and heating projects. For a people-powered energy system, the Horizon 2020-funded project BECoop (2020-2023) aims at putting communities in charge of their local renewable (bio)energy generation. Bioenergy, a renewable energy source deriving from organic materials, can be used to produce, among else, electricity, heat, and fuels. BECoop is unlocking and activating the underlying market potential of community bioenergy, by providing the necessary conditions, technical as well as business support tools. The project aims to make community bioenergy projects more appealing to potential interested actors and to foster new links and partnerships among the international bioenergy community.

What can users find in the BECoop e-market environment? The tool is not only restricted to members of an energy community/cooperative or RESCoop: it engages all European stakeholders involved in the bioenergy, biomass supply chain and energy communities. Biomass owners/suppliers/management companies, equipment manufacturers, ESCOs and installers, cooperatives/energy communities/RESCoops, investors, research centres, public institutions and many more can explore offers and needs uploaded by others or submit theirs. The offers and demands can be filtered by category (products, services, advice, etc.), country and stakeholder type.

Developed within the framework of the BECoop project.

Interested in rising your skills on industrial refrigeration energy efficiency by e-learning? ICCEE aimed at turning energy efficiency opportunities of food and beverage companies into actual investments and finding out opportunities to improve the overall cold chain steps. With this aim, a full capacity building program dedicated to improving the energy performance through direct training and e-learning has been designed and created by a team of experts coming from both the private and public sector. ICCEE invites you to participate in our e-learning training course on energy efficiency in food and beverage cold supply chains designed for experts and non-experts in this field. The course is accessible by anyone, free of charge and prepared for self-studying, with an estimate duration of 6 to 20 hours depending on the current background. The topics include:

• Energy efficiency in the food and beverage sector
• Energy performance indicators
• Energy Management System based on ISO50001 and Measurement and Verification (IPMVP)
• Energy saving opportunities and best practices
• Financial analysis and funding opportunities
• LCA and LCC
• Non-Energy Benefits (NEBs) and behavioural aspects
• ICCEE tool introduction (optional, in some countries available)

The e-learning courses are available in English, French, German, Dutch, Romanian, Italian, Spanish, Latvian and Greek.

Are you interested? You might start immediately with the registration process, by clicking on the following link and selecting the language, and creating your new account:  http://escansa.org/?lang=en

Developed within the framework of the ICCEE project

The Industry Informative Network (IIN) is a platform for stakeholder exchange, fostering the link between various market stakeholders and bridging the gap between demand and supply.

The IIN increases the energy culture of industrial companies, warehouse, cold storage and logistic operators, and creates the opportunity to improve their core business by revising their operations, increasing the awareness towards energy efficiency and sustainable supply-chain initiatives at every organizational level.

Developed within the framework of the ICCEE project

In the ENSMOV knowledge transfer platform, best practices, guidelines, case studies, training materials and country reports from the EU and beyond are available for public authorities and other key stakeholders to support the implementation of energy efficiency policies. An online forum and a LinkedIn group offer the possibility to share ideas and have direct support by asking questions to country experts for the countries listed.

Developed by the ENSMOV project, the platform will be updated in 2023 through the ENSMOV+ project.