The importance of increasing investor confidence in energy efficiency as an asset class was stressed in a recent EU chartered Energy Efficiency Financial Institutions Group report which also highlighted the US based Investor Confidence Project as “a relevant model” and recommended “an EU Investor Confidence Project”. This project will deliver that Investor Confidence Project (ICP) to the EU. Several studies document the potential energy savings for efficiency investments as well as the scale of the investment needed. BPIE estimated EUR937bn investment would be necessary in their Deep Scenario to achieve 78% energy savings and 90% CO2 savings. Despite evidence of the potential attractiveness of investments, the flow of finance into energy efficiency remains much lower than required. Analysis reveals several barriers that hold private capital back but especially a lack of standardised processes and documentation, analogous to those used in the oil & gas and renewables industries. All financial markets are enabled by buyers and sellers agreeing standards. Scaling up investment in efficiency will require standardisation and greatly increased capacity in the financing market – ICP Europe addresses these issues. The project will work with key stakeholders to develop open source Protocols and apply them to real projects. The project has measurable KPIs but the real aim is to get commitment from investors that they will specify the use of the Protocols by project developers seeking finance – making them standards. The advantages of standardization, the adoption of the ICP in the US, and the high level of interest from EU investors that this pan-European multi-disciplinary consortium has already demonstrated lead us to believe that this is realisable objective within the 36 month project. A few key early financial adopters in each market will lead to wider adoption. We have already identified and engaged with a significant number of potential early adopters.

This project will extend the successful standardization approach of the Investor Confidence Project beyond buildings and into Industry and Infrastructure. It will utilize a similar approach to the Horizon 2020 funded ICPEU project which developed standardization for building energy efficiency projects. It will develop standardized Protocols and associated tools (Project Development Specifications, Index of National Resources and Templates) for energy efficiency projects in industry and infrastructure - specifically street lighting and district energy. It will have a European wide communications plan, as well as work in five specific countries, building on the work of ICPEU. It will also develop and deploy trainings for Project Developers and Quality Assurance providers. Using the eco-system of Project Developers and its own networks the project will engage with project developers to certify projects and programmes as being Investor Ready Energy Efficiency (IREE). It will dedicate technical assistance resources to helping project owners and project developers to adopt IREE. It will also dedicate specific resources to working with financial institutions to help them incorporate IREE into their investment and lending procedures.