Funds are available to finance energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. Many islands are engaged in energy transition; however most of them haven’t the expertise to concretely launch investments, access finance and kick start the projects. NESOI aims at filling this gap through a hands-on approach allowing to get the expected financial leverage towards the effective implementation of islands’ energy transition plans. Starting with a broad survey gathering EU islands’ needs, NESOI provides a platform where islands can access both indirect and direct support: 1) Provided through a tailor-made digital platform, the indirect support consists in training material, best case examples, toolkit for technical and economic best practices and a cooperative space for islands, investors and technology developers; 2) Based on transparent technical, social, economic and environmental criteria, NESOI selects projects for customised direct support from consortium experts and from external ones for local aspects thanks to a cascade mechanism. NESOI supports projects at different stages of development, starting from early stage ones requiring a high-level technical & economic assistance, to more advanced ones asking for specific and detailed contributions on various fields (technical, legal, financial), putting forward a reality-check mindset, to make islands focus on solid projects with the potential to attract investors. NESOI implements capacity building and coaching activities to ensure raising awareness and capacity of public authorities' staff for developing investible projects with the aim to empower Local Communities in a success pursuit of the energy transition. Broad communication activities at EU level and links with other initiatives like BRIDGE and the Cities Facility are also foreseen. NESOI partners are strongly connected to investors, island communities and the energy innovation ecosystem, and intend to develop a sustainable business model for NESOI platform

The technical and economic viability of sustainable energy projects is of great interest to public institutions, businesses and individuals due to the associated energy savings and the additional economic and environmental benefits. The EU has articulated numerous mechanisms to encourage the mobilization of investment in terms of sustainable energy, and in Spain there are currently several of them applied to finance such projects. However, there is a set of barriers that hinders a greater development of them, standing out the lacks of: - trust among investors in financial viability; - public and private capabilities in project structuring; and - emblematic successful cases that can be a reference model. ENERINVEST addresses those issues by creating a consulting platform which will provide financial, technical and legal solutions to sustainable energy, facilitating the dialogue among the different stakeholders involved. ENERINVEST aims to become the reference Spanish platform in the field of sustainable energy projects financing, which covers the existing gap between the financial sector and the sustainable energy sector, hence, promoting a higher and more efficient investment in sustainable energy projects. This work is translated in: - gathering and organizing all current information, regulation and existing financial models in Spain; - identifying and promoting successful cases of innovative financial models; - creating an e-platform with an assessment and meeting tool for preliminary market assessments; - establishing working groups with stakeholders to join forces for the promotion of financial mechanisms for the execution of sustainable energy projects; - developing communication activities of the platform to foster its visibility and disseminating the results The main interested parties in ENERINVEST’s activities and results are the following target groups: projects promoters; financial entities, investors and policy makers and other stakeholders in energy and financing.

iDistributedPV´s aim is developing affordable integrated solutions to enhance the penetration of distributed solar PV (buildings) based on the effective integration of solar PV equipment, energy storage, monitoring and controlling strategies and procedures, active demand management, smart technologies and the integration of procedures in the power distribution system according to market criteria. The project will develop the concept of “prosumer”: a player that consumes and produces electricity in his facilities (solar PV). iDistributedPV will be the EU common place for enhancing the distributed solar PV: promoters, equipment manufacturers, DSOs, energy policy experts and R&D players will work together to develop affordable solutions, and produce business and management models for these solutions. The most promising solutions will be validated according to technical and economic criteria (for every solution a cost-benefit analysis will be elaborated) in five different European real distribution grids (Greece, Lithuania, Spain, Poland and Germany) considering different climatic, regulatory and technical frameworks. The validation process will be a relevant argument to convince the power stakeholders (DSOs, equipment manufacturers, energy authorities, policy makers, etc.) about the suitability of the most effective distributed solar PV solutions such as smart electricity supply. iDistributedPV will provide technical and regulatory recommendations, mainly focused on enhancing an effective and active renewable energy contribution and effective demand management to the security and reliability of the electricity networks: evolution from a power system with a centralized electricity generation to a new one that also includes production/demand units (prosumers) based on renewable energy and smart technologies.

The main aim of the DRES2Market project is to develop a comprehensive and affordable approach to facilitate the effective participation of distributed generation based on renewable energies in the electricity markets, and enable to provide balancing and reserve services according to market criteria DRES2Market is focused on overcoming the existing barriers (technology and regulatory framework) for developing the integration of these technologies, based on the following issues: - The evaluation of the existing technologies (power generation, energy storage solutions, smart technologies, etc.) to design appropriate approaches for the effective integration of distributed generation in the electricity and ancillary services markets, propose the evolution of the technology to fulfil with the requirements to participate in these markets and recommend standards for these technologies. - The analysis of the existing grid codes and markets rules in the European markets to assess their capacity to enable the participation of variable renewable energy. - The identification of opportunities for the active participation of final consumers (based on distributed generation) in the penetration of these technologies, according to market criteria, proposing collaborative schemes. - The identification of arguments of the positive impact of these technologies, to obtain the social acceptance of these technologies. This initiative includes validation procedures based on computing and simulating processes based on real conditions. DRES2Market consortium includes the key players for the system integration of variable renewable energy: balance responsible parties; market operators, grid operator; providers of technology solutions; prosumers; retailers that can develop the aggregator role; renewable energy players; research and development (R&D) institutions and consultants with large expertise in renewable energy integration in electricity systems.

In recent years the global shift to a more sustainable energy system is becoming a reality. Nevertheless, now more than ever it is necessary to make our best efforts in making this transition as fast as possible, because otherwise the consequences could be dreadful for our climate conditions. This change necessarily comes through a full transformation of the energy sector, which must consider the energy in all its shapes. Specifically, it is required the electric sector to be adapted to the foreseen penetration of renewable power generation by means of increasing the grid flexibility, guaranteeing its stability and supply security and making the energy affordable for all citizens. This transformation passes through taking advantage of the local renewable resources and turn the current power generation model into a more decentralized new one. To meet this purpose, the integration of electric storage batteries along the different stage of the power supply chain is crucial. This element plays a key role when it comes to adjust the variability of the generation coming from renewable sources such as wind and solar energy and the end-users demand, which sometimes responds to some given needs and cannot be shifted along the day, and sometimes it can be adapted to the generation profile. In this context, besides the integration of the proper technology into the grids, it is utterly necessary its correct management and thus, the development of suitable tools to balance the different elements integrated in the grid. TALENT aims a wide and cost-effective integration of batteries in the grid that will lead to an increase of the flexibility in the energy system and will be based on new technological developments in: i) scalable and modular power electronics topologies, ii) power electronics devices, iii) high-voltage batteries and iv) interoperable software as a service for energy resources management.