Up-scaling energy efficiency investments for Europe

Up-scaling energy efficiency investments is critical and will have multiple benefits for Europe. Energy efficiency investments increase security of supply reducing Europe’s reliance on imported energy, enhancing the competitiveness of Europe’s industry.

The Energy Efficiency Financial Institutions Group (EEFIG) was established in 2013 by the European Commission Directorate-General for Energy (DG Energy) and United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative (UNEP FI).

In February 2015 EEFIG presented its landmark report “Energy Efficiency – the first fuel for the EU Economy: How to drive new finance for energy efficiency investments” which provided a significant advance in the understanding and knowledge about the issues of energy efficiency financing.

On 22 June 2017 the EEFIG Underwriting Toolkit was launched during the EU Sustainable Energy Week. The toolkit is aimed specifically at financial institutions that are looking at ways to design better financial products for energy efficiency investment projects.

The Decision Support Systems Laboratory, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, NTUA (EPU-NTUA), as a consortium partner in the EEFIG De-Risking project (DEEP), an initiative to up-scale energy efficiency investments in Europe, had an important contribution for the creation of the respective database for the existing projects in Buildings and Industry, improving the sharing and transparent analysis.

EPU-NTUA is working further in this direction, on how to identify, evaluate and integrate into the decision making process the different perceptions of risks concerning such investments that investors face when investing in energy efficiency technologies.