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Overview
| Donor: | European Commission (EC) - LIFE |
| Application procedure: | Online Application |
| Donor base: | Belgium |
| Reference number: | LIFE-2023-CET-ENERCOMFACILITY |
| Eligible applicants: | Non-Profit Organisation, Social Business |
| Deadline: | 16.11.2023 |
Financial details
| Grant size: | Large - more than $1,000,000 |
| Minimum grant size: | - |
| Total available budget: | 10.000.000€ |
| Funding type: | Grants |
| Maximum grant size: | - |
| Funding ratio: | up to 100% |
Sectors
- Capacity Building
- Climate Change
- Energy
- Research, Technology & Innovation
Project Locations
Europe
Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine
Description
1) Objective
Under this topic, a ‘European Energy Communities Facility’ shall be set up and run to deliver financial support to third parties and appropriate support services for the early stages of energy community projects in the EU. Energy communities can be an effective tool to attract private investment to renewable energy and energy efficiency, increase the public acceptance of sustainable energy projects and engage citizens in delivering a fair and clean energy transition locally. Given the speed and scale at which the clean energy transition needs to happen and the benefits of engaging and empowering consumers through energy communities, it is essential to create tools to help a large number of community energy projects to take off and contribute to the European climate and energy targets.
With the Clean Energy for all Europeans Package, the EU introduced the definitions of citizen energy communities and renewable energy communities. For both, Member States are asked to create an enabling legal, regulatory and policy framework to provide a level playing field for energy communities and other actors and to support their development and integration in the energy system. As the transposition and implementation of the relevant Directives progresses, a growing number of Member States is developing bespoke support for energy community projects. However, there are large areas of the EU where this support is still scarce and energy community creation relies mostly on the work of volunteers.
The early phases of sustainable energy projects developed by energy communities require a significant effort. Emerging communities often struggle to know where to start when it comes to the technical and financial aspects of setting up a sustainable energy project and funding the key pre-development work (e.g. feasibility studies, permits, legal agreements, etc.). In fact, that work is often carried out by volunteers with limited expertise and/or financed by raising funds from members who, if the project fails, lose their initial investment. As a result, many projects are abandoned at an early stage due to the lack of professional advice and the difficulty of raising funds for the early phases of project development.
◊2) Eligibility
Eligible are legal entities (public or private bodies).
3) Location
Actions must take place in EU member states plus associated countries. Proposals must be submitted by at least 3 applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities) from 3 different eligible countries.
4) Budget
The available call budget is €10,000,000.
5) Application
Proposals must be submitted electronically via the Funding & Tenders Portal Electronic Submission System (accessible via the Topic page in the Search Funding & Tenders section). Paper submissions are NOT possible. The deadline is 16 November 2023.