Project description
Sustainable energy solutions for islands
Experts in island energy transition and financial instruments have joined forces to help island communities achieve efficient and sustainable energy solutions. This is in line with the EU's clean energy priorities. Specifically, the EU-funded NESOI project will pave the way for training, technical support, cooperation and funding opportunities for islands. NESOI will set up a physical and digital platform to provide technical assistance to local authorities and communities for obtaining funding and competencies to deploy investments required to realise an islands' energy transitions plans. NESOI will capitalise on consortium project expertise, and, through its platform, it aims at mobilising more than EUR 100 million of investments in sustainable energy by 2023, leading to an expected 440 GWh/year in energy savings.
Objective
Funds are available to finance energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. Many islands are engaged in energy transition; however most of them haven’t the expertise to concretely launch investments, access finance and kick start the projects. NESOI aims at filling this gap through a hands-on approach allowing to get the expected financial leverage towards the effective implementation of islands’ energy transition plans. Starting with a broad survey gathering EU islands’ needs, NESOI provides a platform where islands can access both indirect and direct support: 1) Provided through a tailor-made digital platform, the indirect support consists in training material, best case examples, toolkit for technical and economic best practices and a cooperative space for islands, investors and technology developers; 2) Based on transparent technical, social, economic and environmental criteria, NESOI selects projects for customised direct support from consortium experts and from external ones for local aspects thanks to a cascade mechanism. NESOI supports projects at different stages of development, starting from early stage ones requiring a high-level technical & economic assistance, to more advanced ones asking for specific and detailed contributions on various fields (technical, legal, financial), putting forward a reality-check mindset, to make islands focus on solid projects with the potential to attract investors. NESOI implements capacity building and coaching activities to ensure raising awareness and capacity of public authorities' staff for developing investible projects with the aim to empower Local Communities in a success pursuit of the energy transition. Broad communication activities at EU level and links with other initiatives like BRIDGE and the Cities Facility are also foreseen. NESOI partners are strongly connected to investors, island communities and the energy innovation ecosystem, and intend to develop a sustainable business model for NESOI platform
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Funding Scheme
CSA - Coordination and support actionCoordinator
35131 Padova
Italy