The Power of Energy Efficiency
What Power?
In the wake of the alarming publications reminding us that global CO2 emissions need to decline quickly for the world to comply with the Paris Agreement and invert Climate Change[1] , energy efficiency remains the fastest, cheapest and greenest way to meet goals.
With buildings accounting today for 40% of Europe's total energy consumption, and the awareness that at the current 1% annual renovation rate it would take around a century to decarbonise the building stock, investments in energy efficiency projects across Europe will have to multiply across Member States, sectors and technologies.
In this scenario, energy efficiency has the power not only to reshape Europe’s energy markets – reducing its reliance on imported energy and boosting environmental protection, but it will also bring real, economic and societal benefits to all European citizens. Effective building renovation will lead to health and wellbeing improvements – and a consequent decrease of national healthcare costs, job creation[2] and economic development in sectors severely hit by the economic crises, it will boost workplace productivity and improve competitiveness for European companies, and, finally, will be the key tool for energy justice – helping lift more than 150 million people out of fuel poverty in the EU.
What Finance?
Innovative financing solutions for sustainable energy projects is key to reach these goals. Different forms of private financing have emerged in the last years to meet the needs of this growing market, but only a few are known to market players – who still struggle to find appropriate finance for their specific needs. Through this webinar series, we want to answer this call – and explore what money is available for which types of projects.
Through an overview of innovative financing structures and best practices across Europe, we will take a bottom up approach, looking at contract types, sources of finance and actual finance available. We will explore together innovative financing options such as on-bill, on-tax, and crowd financing, describe Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) structures, bringing real examples from the business, municipal, and financial perspectives, and discuss advantages and disadvantages of the different finance type (debt, equity, and self-finance).
What Projects?
Finally, the final goal of this webinar series will be to define what types of sustainable energy projects will be able to access these forms of finance.
To do so, we will define the different needs in different EU countries, discuss technologies, sectors, and project sizes. We will go over financial requirements – expected return rates, payback times, and preferred contractual structures. Therefore – a deep dive into the sustainable energy assets world, and a useful guide both for contractors, who are looking to grow and diversify their finance sources, and for those private investors approaching the energy efficiency sector.
Since the SEAF H2020 project – the Sustainable Energy Asset Framework – which ran from 2016-2018, Joule Assets Europe has been working as an intermediary between project developers and financiers with the mission of enabling all viable Sustainable Energy Asset projects to reach deal closure and completion.
Contact
Caroline Milne
Director of Marketing and Communications
Joule Assets Europe
cmilne@jouleassets.com
[2] “Investing €1 million in upgrading the energy efficiency of our building stock will create 19 new direct jobs in the construction sector and that the vast majority of these jobs will be local and non-transferable.” EuroACE: https://euroace.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/2012-How-Many-Jobs.pdf