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Follow-up material relating to the CITYnvest workshop “Innovative financing for energy retrofits”

1. National Framework

Take a look at the report “Energy efficient buildings: an opportunity” drawn from the Ricerca sul Sistema Energetico (Research on Energy Systems), for a detailed overview of the current situation in Italy and the main barriers.

2. Link to the workshop page with presentations and images

http://citynvest.eu/content/italy-workshop-italia
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​3. Guidance material and reference projects

Raising finance for technical assistance and for developing the project.

Many local authorities need additional funding to pay for feasibility studies and working groups to launch their funding programmes. The EU offers a series of support measures for such cases:
You can find

• additional information on European financial support here FAQ, Quick guide to the Covenant of Mayors financing opportunities for local energy development
• more information on European Advisory Services here: FAQ

Find a way to convince communities and decision makers to implement energy efficiency projects

Even if numerous financial models have proven to be successful, many more decision makers (politicians) need to be convinced about the validity of the energy efficiency financing models in order to speed up the multiplying effects of investment projects to the amount required. If, in a metropolitan city or a province, a project aims to group together buildings from different communities or departments, it is sometimes difficult to reach the required threshold of the participating communities.
Find out how the CITYnvest pilot region of Liège has managed to engage a wide range of decision makers in the FAQ section “How to get key decision-makers committed?”

Find a way to overcome the lack of a proper energy services market in our region.

If the local practices of the ESCO market do not satisfy the programme’s level of ambition, you can choose models based on the independent contractor. You can find examples of this and other tips in the CITYnvest Barriers Tool.

Support the development of an energy services market in your region:

Take a look at the example of the German region of Baden-Württemberg where the local energy agency is working with regional SMEs to make them suitable for an energy services market:
- Thomsen presentation

Find ways to address restrictions in the performance contracting contracts due to debt limits

Particularly in Italy but also in other European countries, the way in which performance contracting contracts are classified is an obstacle to large-scale energy efficiency programmes

• The experience of the Agency for Energy and Sustainable Development
• For more details on other examples that have found other ways to overcome this barrier CITYnvest Barriers Tool

For more information on rotation funds:

Rotating funds can be an interesting way of spearheading public and private buildings in your community

Further information on the Italian examples can be found here:

•  Covenant of Mayors webinar: webinar on innovative financing solutions such as intracting with a rotating fund
• Webinar presentation: Parma Example , Udine example

More information on the examples of other countries who are using European funds can be found here:

• Webinar from the Covenant of Mayors on the London Green Fund
• Local investment revolving fund with ERDF funding in the city of The Hague Presentation of Tom Overmeire, for additional information

Find ways to group projects between communities and within the community:

Invest in the renovation of some buildings within and/or between communities in order to significantly reduce transaction costs and to make projects bankable. This, however, presents challenges from coordination efforts between different political and technical policymakers to complex financial provisions

• Refer to “How to efficiently bundle buildings?” in the CITYnvest FAQ
• Discover the toolkit on how to set up a one stop shop to bundle several buildings between communities, following the RenoWatt model of the Belgian province of Liège

Other useful links

“105 Good Energy Efficiency Practices Made in Italy” which collects case studies in the field, a good part of which referred to the public sector was published by Edizioni Ambiente and edited by Kyoto Club.
Tax deductions for energy efficiency. ENEA has published a vade mecum on news and confirmations for 2017. 
The entire month of November is dedicated to EE – MISE and ENEA initiatives
EE success stories of the EU-ASE [European Alliance to Save Energy]

4. Step by step approach

Follow the various steps for constructing a local financing model for energy efficiency! Overview.

5. National and Community Recommendations

A summary document containing the results of the Milan workshop on innovative financing for energy retrofits can be found here.
 

Any questions?

Please contact info@citynvest.eu!