Periodic Reporting for period 4 - EUCF (European City Facility)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2022-08-01 al 2024-07-31
The ultimate goal of the European City Facility (EUCF) is to build a substantial pipeline of sustainable energy investment projects across cities in Europe. This was achieved by providing targeted financial and capacity building support to overcome critical barriers, develop credible investment packages and mobilize finance.
The specific objectives that were addressed by the European City Facility are:
- Provide hands-on locally rooted technical and financial expertise to cities to deliver at least 225 credible and scalable investment concepts (hereafter referred to as IC) which should trigger more than EUR 320 M of public and private investment.
- Build the capacity of at least 450 public authority staff to develop substantial project pipelines and provide them with tools, networking and knowledge transfer opportunities which will facilitate and accelerate the IC implementation, including via innovative financing mechanisms and project aggregation.
- Facilitate access especially for small and medium-sized municipalities to private finance, EU funding streams and similar facilities (e.g. ESIF, H2020-PDA, Elena-EIB) and advisory services such as the EIB Advisory Hub to realize and amplify the expected investments.
- Use the successful investment concepts and knowledge of EUCF beneficiaries to reach out to more than 8,000 cities and communities, encourage replication and catalyze further action across European cities.
The specific objectives that were addressed by the European City Facility are:
- Provide hands-on locally rooted technical and financial expertise to cities to deliver at least 225 credible and scalable investment concepts (hereafter referred to as IC) which should trigger more than EUR 320 M of public and private investment.
- Build the capacity of at least 450 public authority staff to develop substantial project pipelines and provide them with tools, networking and knowledge transfer opportunities which will facilitate and accelerate the IC implementation, including via innovative financing mechanisms and project aggregation.
- Facilitate access especially for small and medium-sized municipalities to private finance, EU funding streams and similar facilities (e.g. ESIF, H2020-PDA, Elena-EIB) and advisory services such as the EIB Advisory Hub to realize and amplify the expected investments.
- Use the successful investment concepts and knowledge of EUCF beneficiaries to reach out to more than 8,000 cities and communities, encourage replication and catalyze further action across European cities.
In detail, the following activities were undertaken during the project:
• Definition of the governance structures and coordination of the Strategic Board
• Selection and coordination of country experts (CE) and national cities networks (NNs)
• Official Launch of the EUCF during the Sustainable Energy Investment Forum, with EASME/CINEA and DG ENER
• Definition of the 4 calls for proposals to the EUCF and the application and evaluation process
• Development of investment concept template
• Definition of the support to third parties, and the development of a model of a Grant Agreement to be signed between EUCF and beneficiaries
• Developing a comprehensive Helpdesk Strategy and Complaint Mechanism and monitoring of the helpdesk to support EUCF applicants and beneficiaries
• Developing, launching and continuously updating and maintaining the EUCF Facility Management Platform for applicants and beneficiaries
• For the four calls: Preparation, launch (including national webinars and European launch info sessions), evaluation and selection of 215 applicants and signature of the EUCF grant agreements
• Development of 215 investment concepts (call 1-4)
• Surveys to all EUCF beneficiaries from calls 1-4, on their development and progress of the investment concepts
• Positive validation of 202 Investment Concepts from Calls 1 - 4; 1 negative validation and 12 non-developed/non-submitted ICs.
• General communication and dissemination of the calls and the first EUCF results, including three investor reports based on calls 2, 3 and 4, the EUCF Impact Report, promotion at various EU events (e.g. Smart City Expo 2022 and 2023, COMIF in 2022 and 2023, European Week of Regions and Cities 2022 and 2023, European Sustainable Energy Week 2023).
• Creation of visuals for each beneficiary from Calls 1-3, showcasing key details and a summary of each project (available on the website).
• Production of video trailers, including 15 video interviews and one video recording with financial experts, beneficiaries, country experts, and an energy agency professional.
• Three Communities of Practice in 2023 for EUCF beneficiaries, and two peer-to-peer events focused on building the capacity of local authorities in 2022 and 2024.
• Five national workshops in 2024 (one in Croatia, three in Italy, one in Belgium) to provide municipalities with a platform to share their experiences, challenges and lessons learned.
• A closing event in Brussels in June 2024 with 107 participants.
• Definition of the governance structures and coordination of the Strategic Board
• Selection and coordination of country experts (CE) and national cities networks (NNs)
• Official Launch of the EUCF during the Sustainable Energy Investment Forum, with EASME/CINEA and DG ENER
• Definition of the 4 calls for proposals to the EUCF and the application and evaluation process
• Development of investment concept template
• Definition of the support to third parties, and the development of a model of a Grant Agreement to be signed between EUCF and beneficiaries
• Developing a comprehensive Helpdesk Strategy and Complaint Mechanism and monitoring of the helpdesk to support EUCF applicants and beneficiaries
• Developing, launching and continuously updating and maintaining the EUCF Facility Management Platform for applicants and beneficiaries
• For the four calls: Preparation, launch (including national webinars and European launch info sessions), evaluation and selection of 215 applicants and signature of the EUCF grant agreements
• Development of 215 investment concepts (call 1-4)
• Surveys to all EUCF beneficiaries from calls 1-4, on their development and progress of the investment concepts
• Positive validation of 202 Investment Concepts from Calls 1 - 4; 1 negative validation and 12 non-developed/non-submitted ICs.
• General communication and dissemination of the calls and the first EUCF results, including three investor reports based on calls 2, 3 and 4, the EUCF Impact Report, promotion at various EU events (e.g. Smart City Expo 2022 and 2023, COMIF in 2022 and 2023, European Week of Regions and Cities 2022 and 2023, European Sustainable Energy Week 2023).
• Creation of visuals for each beneficiary from Calls 1-3, showcasing key details and a summary of each project (available on the website).
• Production of video trailers, including 15 video interviews and one video recording with financial experts, beneficiaries, country experts, and an energy agency professional.
• Three Communities of Practice in 2023 for EUCF beneficiaries, and two peer-to-peer events focused on building the capacity of local authorities in 2022 and 2024.
• Five national workshops in 2024 (one in Croatia, three in Italy, one in Belgium) to provide municipalities with a platform to share their experiences, challenges and lessons learned.
• A closing event in Brussels in June 2024 with 107 participants.
The main results achieved are:
- 215 beneficiaries supported (financially and technically) of which 202 successfully submitted an investment concept. This resulted in a substantial pipeline of sustainable energy projects, many of them in the implementation stage.
- 4 successful calls for applications organized, with a total of 773 applications received, including calls planning, promotion, evaluation, selection, notification, contract signature and the payments of a EUR 60,000 lump sum per beneficiary.
- Country Experts/National Networks from 26 countries coordinated and trained to support the EUCF applicants and beneficiaries throughout their EUCF journey.
- A substantial amount of potential investments triggered - the estimated values (not yet implemented, impacts estimated by the investment concepts) amount to to 24.1 billion EUR investments triggered and 11.96 GWh/y of energy savings.
From beneficiaries' feedback, the EUCF was a "door-opener" for their activities and investments at local level. For example, the EUCF grants have helped to:
- set priorities at local level about the feasibility of investments, and therefore accelerated the political decision-making and clear action plan for many lcal authorities (see inspirational cases in the impact report, for example).
- make local staff aware of how to present a project to an investor or funder and also highlighted the importance of attracting private finance (in addition to public funds). As one beneficiary quoted it: "the EUCF forced us to have a more financial approach in mind".
- motivate in particular small and medium-sized municipalities to develop an investment concept, cities that did not have sufficient experience in EU funding yet.
A few other impacts/learnings from the EUCF:
- Overall the cumulative results of the four EUCF calls demonstrate the relevance of the building sector within the investment concepts developed by EUCF beneficiaries with an overall share of 18% of beneficiaries indicating the 'public buildings sector' in their IC, followed closely by 'residential buildings' (17%) and 'integrated renewable energy' (17%).
- From 72 monitoring reports that the EUCF received one year after the IC submission (from calls 1 and 2), the majority of ICs is under planning stage. 14 concepts are in implementation stage and 2 beneficiaries have implemented their investment concepts already.
- In terms of investment schemes envisaged for their measures, there is a clear tendency towards the use of EU and other grants. This was the investment scheme that was the most selected by the EUCF beneficiaries that filled out the monitoring reports one and two years following the IC submission (only calls 1 and 2 concerned for the moment).
- 215 beneficiaries supported (financially and technically) of which 202 successfully submitted an investment concept. This resulted in a substantial pipeline of sustainable energy projects, many of them in the implementation stage.
- 4 successful calls for applications organized, with a total of 773 applications received, including calls planning, promotion, evaluation, selection, notification, contract signature and the payments of a EUR 60,000 lump sum per beneficiary.
- Country Experts/National Networks from 26 countries coordinated and trained to support the EUCF applicants and beneficiaries throughout their EUCF journey.
- A substantial amount of potential investments triggered - the estimated values (not yet implemented, impacts estimated by the investment concepts) amount to to 24.1 billion EUR investments triggered and 11.96 GWh/y of energy savings.
From beneficiaries' feedback, the EUCF was a "door-opener" for their activities and investments at local level. For example, the EUCF grants have helped to:
- set priorities at local level about the feasibility of investments, and therefore accelerated the political decision-making and clear action plan for many lcal authorities (see inspirational cases in the impact report, for example).
- make local staff aware of how to present a project to an investor or funder and also highlighted the importance of attracting private finance (in addition to public funds). As one beneficiary quoted it: "the EUCF forced us to have a more financial approach in mind".
- motivate in particular small and medium-sized municipalities to develop an investment concept, cities that did not have sufficient experience in EU funding yet.
A few other impacts/learnings from the EUCF:
- Overall the cumulative results of the four EUCF calls demonstrate the relevance of the building sector within the investment concepts developed by EUCF beneficiaries with an overall share of 18% of beneficiaries indicating the 'public buildings sector' in their IC, followed closely by 'residential buildings' (17%) and 'integrated renewable energy' (17%).
- From 72 monitoring reports that the EUCF received one year after the IC submission (from calls 1 and 2), the majority of ICs is under planning stage. 14 concepts are in implementation stage and 2 beneficiaries have implemented their investment concepts already.
- In terms of investment schemes envisaged for their measures, there is a clear tendency towards the use of EU and other grants. This was the investment scheme that was the most selected by the EUCF beneficiaries that filled out the monitoring reports one and two years following the IC submission (only calls 1 and 2 concerned for the moment).