Financing Energy Efficiency using Private Investments

Project Information

F-PI

Grant agreement ID: 846085

DOI

10.3030/846085

Project closed

EC signature date 29 April 2019

Start date 1 May 2019

End date 30 April 2022

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost

€ 1 443 437,50

EU contribution

€ 1 443 437,50

Coordinated by

DELOITTE ADVISORY SL
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - F-PI (Financing Energy Efficiency using Private Investments)

Reporting period: 2020-11-01 to 2022-04-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The Spanish energy efficiency market is not as well developed as in other countries, such as Germany, France or Italy. Some important barriers have been identified:
-Lack of confidence of financial entities in projects, and lack of knowledge about energy efficiency technologies.
-Lack of knowledge of project developers about financing instruments and entities.
The F-PI project has as objective to reduce the financial barriers for energy efficiency projects. To do so, the project is aimed at reducing the transactional costs and time to obtain private financing for energy efficiency projects, by carrying out a set of specific actions. These actions are focused on the provision of technical assistance to private financing entities and project developers to ensure that these projects can access funding.
The technical assistance includes the design of standardized procedures, in order to create and analyze portfolios as well as the definition of innovative financing alternatives, with the objective of reaching a high degree of replicability.
The F-PI project has the following five specific objectives:
-O1. Reduction of investment risks. The Consortium supports financing entities in the gathering of the financial information from project developers, and carries out an independent technical and economic feasibility analysis for energy efficiency projects.
-O2. Mobilization of private investment. The Consortium has created a wide partnership of different financial entities, using different financial solutions.
-O3. Promote financial solutions. The F-PI Consortium is collaborating with some financial entities which offer innovative financial instruments for energy efficiency projects, such as equity holding, leasing, renting, crowdfunding or power purchase agreements.
-O4. Blockchain inclusion. The F-PI Consortium has striven to make both project developers and financing institutions aware of the blockchain technology and its possibilities.
-O5. Replicability. The results of the project can be easily extended to other countries.
The project has been successful in all objectives:
-O1: The F-PI Consortium has contacted with 57 different financial institutions, which offer various financing mechanisms. Collaboration frameworks have been established with 28 entities. A standard model of Technical and Economic Feasibility Report has been designed and used successfully with financial institutions. 62 Technical and Economic Feasibility Reports have been prepared along the project.
-O2: Mobilization of private investments. The F-PI project has supported 53 energy efficiency projects, mobilizing a total private funding triggered by F-PI of €32,840,972.24.
-O3. Promote financial solutions. The F-PI project has collaborated closely with financial entities which use innovative financing instruments, very appropriate to small energy efficiency projects. Among them, it is possible to mention renting, crowdfunding, leasing, project finance, equity holding and power purchase agreements (PPA).
-04: Blockchain inclusion. The F-PI project has helped 4 different projects find funding, and has installed the blockchain monitoring and certification tool in them.
-O5: Replicability. The use of some financial solutions for a specific kind of projects can be easily extended to other countries. Besides, knowledge about what is useful (or not) to financing institutions is important in order to focus efforts on what is really needed. F-PI has collaborated actively with other Horizon 2020 projects, the Energy Savings Insurance (ESI), the HousEEnvest and the REFINE projects.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the 36 months of the action, the project Consortium has achieved to be considered a good instrument for financing entities which look for funding energy efficiency projects, and for project developers which look for funding for these projects. The project has been successful in creating a strong network of financing entities and project developers, and to connect them. Besides, it has designed a model of Technical and Economic Feasibility Report (Eligibility Report), and standard models of Memorandum of Understanding, Contractual Procedure, Non-Disclosure Agreement, Letter of Intent, Term Sheet, Financing Contract, and contract model.
The following is a summary of the main results of the project:
-277 project developers have been contacted, inviting them to participate in F-PI.
-61 non-disclosure agreements have been signed with project developers.
-57 financing entities have been contacted to participate in F-PI: 12 investment funds, 32 banks, 8 renting entities, 3 entities willing to invest in renewable energy projects, 1 crowdfunding organization, 1 insurance company.
-24 non-disclosure agreements have been signed with financing entities: 7 investment funds, 8 banks, 5 renting entities, 2 entities willing to invest in renewable energy projects, 1 crowdfunding organization, 1 insurance company.
-53 projects have been funded with the support of F-PI, with a total volume of funding amounting to €32,840,972.24.
-165 projects have been analyzed during the project.
-A Technical and Economic Feasibility Report has been prepared for 62 projects.
-The blockchain monitoring and energy saving certification solution has been installed in 4 different projects, funded under the F-PI project.
The summary of avoided greenhouse gas emissions and primary energy savings obtained by the projects supported by F-PI is as follows.
-Energy savings achieved by the supported projects: 42.76 GWh/year.
-Renewable energy production triggered by the supported projects: 4.64 GWh/year.
-Installed renewable energy: 2.913 MW.
-Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions triggered by the supported projects: 15,186 tons of CO2/year.
As for communication and dissemination activities, the following is a summary of the main results of the project: 12 face-to-face events, 11 webinars, 18 press releases, a logo, a website, 2 videos and a brochure have been launched, as well as a Twitter and LinkedIn profile.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The project has helped reduce the gap between energy efficiency project developers and financial entities, achieving that the success rate of funding when one of these projects is presented is higher.
The Project Consortium has promoted some innovative financial solutions, making them more well-known by the general public, such as energy efficiency facility renting, crowdfunding or signature of power purchase agreements.
Besides, the experience of the F-PI project in overcoming the barriers between financial entities and project developers could be also applied in other cases, to reduce the time and effort needed to make a project be funded, as well as the success rate.
Finally, the Consortium has advised the use innovative blockchain solutions to certificate energy savings achieved by a specific technology. Although this technology is not widely used in the energy efficiency industry, the advantages have been explained to both financing entities and energy efficiency project developers. 4 projects have been funded which use this technology.
At the end of F-PI, the initiative has supported 53 energy efficiency projects, triggering investments in sustainable energy amounting to € 32,840,972.24. The energy savings achieved by these projects are estimated to be 42.76 GWh/year, with a total renewable energy generation of 4.64 GWh/year (2.913 MW of installed power capacity).

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