The European Island Facility NESOI launches its first open call: over €3 million available to support islands with their energy transition ambitions
A key challenge for local authorities and legal private entities on islands is to transform their overall long-term ambitions into a credible set of plans and project outlines as many do not have the expertise to concretely launch investments, access finance and kick-start their projects. For this reason, the European Islands Facility NESOI aims to support successful energy transition projects on EU islands, mobilising more than €100M of investment and significantly reducing CO2 and GHG emissions through a hands-on approach allowing local authorities and legal private entities to get the necessary technical and financial capacity for the effective implementation of islands’ energy transition plans. A non-exhaustive list of potentially eligible projects under NESOI includes the development of low carbon vehicles, retrofitting of buildings, co-generation plants, electricity generation and distribution, energy storage, deployment of charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, industrial heat production, electricity production from renewable energy sources and more. The total EU funding available for the call for proposal is 3,120,000€ with maximum grant amount per proposal/beneficiary of 60,000 EUR grant. In addition to this, 60,000 EUR worth of Technical Assistance will be provided directly by the NESOI experts team. The first NESOI open call closes on 18 December 2020! For more information on how to apply, visit the “Open Calls” section on the NESOI website! Context of NESOI As recognised in the 2017 "Political Declaration on Clean Energy For EU Islands", islands and island regions face a particular set of energy challenges and opportunities due to their specific geographic and climatic conditions. The opportunities have the potential to make Europe’s island communities innovation leaders in the clean energy transition for Europe and beyond – a fact the European Commission explicitly recognised in its Communication on "Clean Energy for All Europeans", highlighting its commitment to ensuring that the energy concerns of island inhabitants are at the forefront of the energy transition and related policy developments.